Magistrate Twanet Olivier on Thursday sentenced South African opposition leader Julius Malema to five years in prison for firing a rifle into the air at a party rally. Malema, 45, leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), was convicted last year on charges including unlawful possession of a firearm and discharging a weapon in a public place over a 2018 incident at a stadium in the Eastern Cape.
Malema pleaded not guilty at trial, asserting the gun was a toy. His legal team applied for leave to appeal within minutes of the sentence being read in a court in KuGompo City (formerly East London).
Hundreds of EFF supporters, dressed in the party’s trademark red, gathered outside the courthouse during the politically charged sentencing. The offences carry a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.
If a custodial sentence longer than 12 months is upheld on appeal, Malema would be disqualified from serving as a lawmaker — a major blow to the EFF. The party is the fourth-largest in South Africa’s parliament and draws substantial support from young people frustrated by persistent racial and economic inequalities that have endured since the end of white minority rule in 1994.