A Magistrate’s Court in KuGompo City in the Eastern Cape has sentenced Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema to a total of five years’ imprisonment in his firearm case.
It relates to an incident in which he discharged a firearm during the EFF’s fifth anniversary celebrations in Mdantsane in 2018.
On Wednesday, during arguments on mitigation and aggravation of the sentence, the state sought a prison sentence, while the defence preferred a non-custodial sentence.
Malema had been convicted for discharging a firearm in public.
State prosecutor Advocate Joel Ceasar says Malema has shown no remorse for endangering people’s lives.
Meanwhile, the EFF has indicated that it will appeal the court’s decision.
“We are going to appeal there and there that she must extend bail. We hope that she’s going to be within the law and be reasonable because our lawyers, even yesterday, the legal team they presented a case that the president [Malema] is not a flight risk. The president has been cooperative with the courts since 2018. [He] has never missed a court date.”
“So everything that’s expected of a responsible leader and citizen … the president has complied with all that. The team is there… deputy president [Godrich Gardee] is leading that legal team, and we are confident that we will get the bail. The President today is going to sleep at home, that we know. Because the institutions of this country are still intact and they will listen to us.”
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