Bheki Cele's office confirms getting Malema 'assassination' info but can't say when

The office of police minister Bheki Cele has said that it "received information" on the alleged assassination threat that was to be carried out on Thursday at the state of the nation address (Sona). 

Cele's spokeswoman, Reneilwe Serero, could however not say when they had received the information.

This comes after the EFF on Thursday claimed that EFF MP and head of party security Marshall Dlamini had slapped a policeman on Thursday "in self-defence" after the party had been alerted of a threat on the life of Julius Malema.

"I can confirm that the ministry of police has received information on a threat on the CIC of the EFF [Malema]," said Serero.

"I can only confirm the office receiving the threat, As for the timeline, I am not at liberty to say."

EFF central command team member Veronica Mente also could not tell when the party had reported the "threat" to the minister of police other than saying it was "before Sona".

Said Mente: "The issue of the threat on the life of the CIC has been a long-standing issue since last year and SAPS has been investigating this matter and they even did security assessment on our president and afforded him protection.

"So the updates on all the threats have been happening continuously based on information we are receiving and pass it over to the police.

"This threat has now changed direction because [the] previous one was something else but this latest one came closer to home in that it was going to happen in the parliament precinct."