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Johannesburg - Billionaire businessman Johann Rupert is threatened by the Economic Freedom Fighters' (EFF) fight for economic freedom, the party said on Monday.
"Rupert is threatened by the economic struggle and the agenda to change patterns of ownership in South Africa," EFF leader Julius Malema told reporters in Johannesburg.
He was announcing the EFF's national and provincial lists of candidates for the May 7 general elections.
He said anything that threatened to change power relations in the country would be a threat to the luxury goods tycoon.
"Even when we were in the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) he said the youth league is like an irritating mosquito in a tent that needs doom," said Malema.
"President Jacob Zuma became that doom, used... to destroy the ANCYL."
According to the Sunday Times, Malema told a group of supporters at a rally in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, at the weekend that Rupert had ordered the ANC to deal with him while he was head of the ANCYL and that the businessman controlled the SA Revenue Service.
"Does Johann Rupert think we are fools? When Zuma handed us over to the SA Revenue Service (Sars), his reason was political, Rupert's was [capital-driven]."
Malema will run as the EFF's presidential candidate.
Floyd Shivambu was number four on the national list, the party's national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi was eighth and the national co-ordinator Andile Mngxitama was tenth.
Three members of the Socialist Party of Azania, including its president Lybon Mabasa, were part of the EFF's candidate list.
Three members of the Black Consciousness Party, including its deputy president Nkosi Molala, and two members of South Africa First were also listed as EFF candidates.
Democratic Alliance MPL Meisie Kennedy would be one of EFF's provincial candidates.
"If the DA is unhappy with that, they must fire her," Malema said.
