Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm and discharging it in public.
His legal team moved swiftly to appeal the ruling, successfully preventing his immediate imprisonment. However, the five-year sentence now casts serious doubt over his future in Parliament, as it could lead to his disqualification as an MP.
Inside the East London court, Malema stood composed in a dark suit and signature red tie as Magistrate Twanet Olivier delivered the sentence, showing little visible reaction. The conviction stems from a 2018 incident during the party’s fifth anniversary celebrations in the Eastern Cape, where a video surfaced showing Malema firing multiple shots from a semi-automatic rifle into the air. He was found guilty last year on five counts, including unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, discharging a weapon in a public space, and reckless endangerment.
In his defence, Malema maintained that the weapon did not belong to him, insisting he only fired the shots to energise the crowd. But in her ruling, Magistrate Olivier dismissed that explanation, stating “it wasn’t… an impulsive act. It was the event of the evening.”
Known for his fiery rhetoric and radical political stance, Malema rose to prominence as leader of the ANC Youth League before a dramatic fallout with former president Jacob Zuma which led to his expulsion. He would later form the EFF, building it into South Africa’s fourth-largest political party by the 2024 elections.
Following his conviction in October, Malema struck a defiant tone outside court, telling supporters that “going to prison or death is a badge of honour.” He added, “we cannot be scared of prison [or] to die for the revolution… we will never retreat.”
The case itself was triggered by Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, long at odds with Malema and his party, after the video went viral.
With hundreds of EFF supporters gathering outside court in a show of solidarity, the matter now shifts to the appeals process, one Malema has vowed to pursue all the way to South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court.
