A South African court sentenced firebrand politician Julius Malema to five years in jail after finding him guilty of violating the nation’s gun laws and other offences.
The sentence disqualifies him from serving in parliament if he fails to have the judgment overturned. Malema was also fined on some counts. He is filing an appeal – a process that can take years to conclude – and has been released on bail.
The KuGompo City magistrate’s court, which convicted Malema of firing a weapon at a political rally in 2018, handed down the sentence on Thursday.
Malema heads the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which advocates for the expropriation of mines, banks and land, and is notorious for starting brawls in parliament. It won 9.5 per cent of the vote in elections in 2024, making it the fourth-biggest party and giving it 39 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.
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Addressing hundreds of cheering supporters outside the courthouse in the southern coastal city, Malema accused the magistrate who presided over his case of being incompetent and racist.
“No sober judge will ever agree that a person shoots one bullet and then he is sentenced for five years,” he said. “I am going to appeal until the highest court.”
The case stemmed from a video that went viral on social media that appeared to show Malema firing shots into the air with what looked like an automatic rifle at an EFF rally in the town of Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape province in July 2018.
He denied wrongdoing, with his lawyer arguing that he used a toy gun and blank cartridges, rather than live ammunition – an argument the court rejected.
“Gun violence is out of control in South Africa,” said Geordin Hill-Lewis, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, the country’s second-biggest party. “Only when people understand that there are consequences for crime will we get gun violence under control in South Africa. The sentence also sends a clear message that in South Africa nobody is above the law.”
Malema has been criticised by US president Donald Trump for singing a song dating back to the apartheid era that calls for White Afrikaner farmers to be killed.
At a meeting with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House last year, Trump falsely alleged that the farmers were being subjected to a genocide and questioned why no action had been taken against Malema over his inflammatory remarks. South Africa’s top court, however, has ruled that the song did not constitute hate speech.
The effect Malema’s legal travails will have on the EFF’s support will be tested in municipal elections that are due to be held in the next few months. The party has seen several high-profile defections over the last few years and its share of the vote declined marginally in 2024.
“The EFF will, no doubt, make Malema’s conviction and sentencing central to its future campaigning,” said Louw Nel, a political analyst at Oxford Economics. “The perceived victimhood of its leader will speak to the party’s die-hard supporters but will not necessarily boost its electoral prospects.” – Bloomberg
