Sept 26 (Reuters) - Julius Malema, who was expelled from the African National Congress (ANC) for ill-discipline, was charged with money laundering in a South African court on Wednesday, accused of "improperly" receiving 4.2 million rand (${esc.dollar}514,000) in a conspiracy involving state tenders.
Here is a timeline on Malema since he was elected as president of the ANC's Youth League in 2008:
April 2008 - Elected president of ANC's Youth League.
June 2008 - Supports Jacob Zuma's bid to become president of South Africa and tells a rally: "We are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma."
March 2010 - Found guilty of hate speech by the Equality Court and fined for suggesting that a woman who accused President Zuma of rape had "a nice time".
April 2010 - Criticised by Zuma over his outspoken support for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and its land reform policies, under which white-owned farms have been seized and given to black Zimbabweans.
June 2011 - Re-elected as president of ANC's youth wing.
July 2011 - The newspaper City Press, in an article vetted by a judge before publication, writes that Malema had a slush fund for bribes used to finance his lavish lifestyle.
Aug. 2011 - Malema says Botswana President Ian Khama is a "puppet" of the United States and calls for regime change in South Africa's diamond-rich neighbour. ANC charges Malema with "sowing divisions" in the party and for bringing it into disrepute.
Sept. 2011 - Found guilty of hate speech by a South African court for singing an apartheid-era song that called for the killing of white farmers.
Nov. 2011 - Thrown out of the ruling ANC for five years after found guilty of indiscipline and sowing division in Africa's oldest liberation movement.
Sept. 2012 - Charged with money laundering but emerges from court unbowed to attack President Zuma as the "illiterate" leader of a "banana republic".
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