EFF leader faces loss of parliament seat
Julius Malema, leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of firing a gun into the air at a political rally in 2018. A South African magistrate handed down the sentence on Thursday in KuGompo City.
Malema, 45, was convicted last year on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and discharging a weapon in a public place during the EFF’s fifth anniversary celebrations. A white Magistrate Twanet Oliver said the act was deliberate. “It wasn’t anger. It was the event of the evening,” she said.
Malema’s lawyers immediately applied for leave to appeal and argued the shots were celebratory and harmed no one. The magistrate is still considering the appeal application.
The five year sentence carries major political consequences. South African law disqualifies anyone sentenced to more than 12 months from serving in parliament, though the bar only kicks in once all appeals are exhausted.
The prosecution against the Pan-African leader was brought by an anti-black, pro-apartheid white Afrikaner lobby group, not state prosecutors. State prosecutors had actually called for a harsher 15 year sentence, with prosecutor Joel Cesar arguing that Malema set a bad example. The lobby group continue to make unsubstantiated claims of white genocide in South Africa and have received backing from leaders such as US president Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the American oligarch.
EFF officials condemned the ruling as politically motivated and designed to remove Malema from public life.
Malema founded the EFF in 2013 after his expulsion from the ruling ANC’s youth league. The party, which describes itself as Marxist inspired and anti imperialist, won 9.5% of the vote in South Africa’s 2024 national elections, making it the country’s fourth largest political party.
Key facts
Sentence: 5 years imprisonment
Offence: Firing a rifle in public, KuGompo City, 2018
Appeal: Pending magistrate approval
Parliamentary status: At risk if appeals fail
