South African deputy for fires sentenced to having shot a firearm in public

South African opposition politician Julius Malema was found guilty of having unloaded a firearm in public seven years ago – an offense which leads to a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

In 2018, a video emerged showing the chief of the fighters of economic freedom (EFF) pulling several shots in the air during the celebrations of the fifth anniversary of his party held in the province of Cape East of the country.

He was charged alongside his former bodyguard Adriaan Snyman, who was acquitted.

Malema was found guilty of hate speeches less than two months ago and is often unleashed with the white minority in a country where, 31 years after the end of apartheid, racial tensions are still high.

He called for the seizure of land belonging to whites and maintains that more should be done to transfer the wealth to the black majority.

Malema was found guilty of five offenses, including the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, unloading it in a public space and an imprudent endangerment. The first accusation leads to a maximum sentence of 15 years.

He was accused of having shot between 14 and 15 laps live on a stage in front of 20,000 supporters of the EFF, according to the South African new site Sowatanlive.

For his defense, Malema told court that the firearm was not his and that he had fired the shots to wake up the crowd, added the publication.

It took three days to the magistrate Twanet Olivier to tell Malema “that you are found guilty as charged”. The case was postponed to January 2026 for pre-lence to the Sentence.

Malema’s lawsuits intervened after the Lobby Afrikaner Afriforum group, which has a controversial relationship with Malema and the EFF, opened a case against him after the video has become viral.

Afriforum was also one of those who filed a complaint of hatred speeches against the deputy for the EFF to the Human Rights Commission in South Africa.

This led to his conviction by the country’s equality in August in August this year.

After an incident where a white man would have attacked a member of the eff, Malema said: “No white man will fight me … You should never be afraid of killing. A revolution requires at one point, there must be to kill.”

The equality court judged that these remarks “have shown an intention to encourage damage”, but the EFF said they had been released from their context.