By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider
Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters(EFF), Julius Malema, appeared in court on Friday at the East London Magistrate Court. As he awaits his verdict, Malema has gone on to accuse Afriforum for disrespecting the constitution.
As the pre-sentencing concluded on Friday, Malema will now have to wait until April before he knows what the verdict of his sentencing will be. The court proceedings were accompanied by testimony from Jessie Thompson, who holds a vocation in Social Work.
Thompson suggested to the court that Malema be given a fine rather than an all out prison time. The reason for this suggestion from Thompson, is that she explained that Malema had no intention to harm anyone when he fired rounds of gunshots into the air at a EFF rally.
Magistrate Twanet Olivier then proceeded to highlight that the sentencing for the EFF leader will span over the course of two days in order for careful and thorough consideration to be taken into account when coming with a verdict.
15 April is the proposed date that Malema will be requested to return to the courts and will receive his sentencing on the same day. In the midst of the storm surrounding Malema’s sentencing, EFF supporters were protesting and showing their solidarity to the leader of the EFF.
When Malema addressed his crowd of supporters he continued to maintain that the charges brought against him stem from political agendas and particularly called out Afriforum when addressing the crowd.
“Afriforum must pray that the EFF must never be a government in South Africa because the day we take government, we are going to lock them up” Malema told the crowd.
Malema insisted that Afriforum’s actions towards him have been unconstitutional as he believes that the organization is using the legal system to settle the score with him.
“When I joined the struggle, I knew three things would happen to me; they will either arrest me, kill me or I will attain my freedom. We are not scared of death and we are not scared of prison” said Malema when he addressed the crowd following the conclusion of the pre-sentencing.