Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has been found guilty on five counts relating to the unlawful possession of a firearm and discharging it in public, a verdict he has vowed to challenge all the way to the Constitutional Court.
The East London Magistrate’s Court delivered the guilty verdict on Monday, stemming from an incident during the EFF’s 5th anniversary celebrations at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in 2018. In a contrasting outcome, the court acquitted Malema’s co-accused and former bodyguard, Adriaan Snyman, of all charges.
In her judgment, Magistrate Twanet Olivier found that the state had presented “credible and reliable witnesses” to prove its case. She specifically criticized Malema’s evidence, stating he “avoided key questions during cross-examination” and that his evasive replies “did not work in his favor.” The magistrate also noted that a viral video of the incident was deemed inadmissible as evidence because its originality could not be verified.
Despite the court’s findings, Malema remains defiant. Addressing a crowd of supporters in East London, he declared the case to be politically and racially motivated.
“We are going to fight this up until the Constitutional Court,” Malema stated. “We are coming on the 23rd of January for sentencing and after sentencing, we will immediately put an appeal so that we can go to the higher court because we think a judgment is faulty.”
Malema questioned the logic of his own conviction while his co-accused was set free. “They said accused number two gave me the firearm. Now they are releasing him, which means he didn’t give me the firearm,” he argued. “By releasing accused number two, the whole case should have collapsed.”
The verdict has been welcomed by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the lobby group AfriForum.
A spokesperson for AfriForum said the organization was “very grateful” for the ruling, which they believed was “essential to reinstate faith from the public side in the South African justice system.”
“We think people have started to lose faith in the justice system because we’ve seen so many politically connected… cases that simply did not get any attention,” the spokesperson said, adding that the verdict was “a great breakthrough and a big win for all the law-abiding citizens of South Africa.”
The NPA also endorsed the court’s decision. A spokesperson stated, “We believe that the court arrived at a correct decision because this case to us was about ensuring that the rule of law is upheld, that no one can act outside the premises of the law without any accountability.”
The matter has been scheduled to return to the East London Magistrate’s Court on January 23, 2026, for pre-sentencing procedures. Malema has announced his intention to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal immediately following his sentencing.