South African opposition politician Julius Malema, 45, has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of illegally possessing a gun and firing a gun in public.
Malema's lawyer immediately appealed the decision to stop the Economic Freedom Fighters leader and member of parliament from being taken to jail.
Malema, standing in an east London court in a dark suit and red tie, appeared slightly emotional as Magistrate Twenet Ollivier handed down the sentence.
Last year, he was convicted of five crimes, including illegal possession of a firearm, discharging it in a public place and reckless endangerment.
The charges relate to an incident in 2018 when a video emerged showing Malema firing several bullets into the air using a semi-automatic rifle during his party's fifth anniversary celebrations held in the country's Eastern Cape province.
In his defence, Malema told the court that the gun was not his and that he had fired the shots to incite the crowd, as South African news site SowetanLive reported at the time.
But at the sentencing, Ollivier said, “This was not an impulsive act. This was an incident in the evening,” the AFP news agency reports.
Malema has a long-standing reputation as an outspoken, charismatic and radical left-wing politician and has a loyal group of supporters.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the court, chanting slogans and singing revolutionary songs in support of Malema.
Malema was once the leader of the youth wing of the ruling African National Congress. But he formed the EFF after being expelled from the party following a rift with then-President Jacob Zuma.
With Malema's call to confiscate white-owned land and arguments for more to be done to transfer wealth to the black majority, the EFF ate up the ANC share of the vote. It became the fourth largest party in the country in the 2024 elections.
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After being found guilty last October, Malema told people outside the court in east London that “going to jail or dying is a mark of honour”.
“We cannot be afraid of prison (or) of dying for the revolution. Whatever they want to do, they should know that we will never back down.”
He also vowed to challenge the decision all the way to South Africa's highest court, the Constitutional Court.
Malema was prosecuted when Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, which has a controversial relationship with him and the EFF, opened a case against Malema after the video went viral.
Source: BBC