Cape Town, South Africa (AP) — A leftist South African politician who described U.S. President Donald Trump as a modern-day dictator was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday for opening fire with a rifle at a political rally in 2018.
Julius Malema, who leads a populist opposition party, has been a divisive figure in South Africa for years and has been accused of stoking racial tensions with anti-white rhetoric. Supporters praise him as one of those who stand up for the country's poor black majority.
He has been the focus of criticism of the US government and was featured in a video played during a tense White House meeting between Trump and the South African president last year.
Malema recently called Trump a “modern-day Adolf Hitler.”
Here's a look at Malema's controversial track record:
expelled from ruling party
Malema emerged as the outspoken chairman of the youth league of the ruling African National Congress party from 2008–2012. His conduct regularly tested the patience of senior party members, including the time when he began publicly criticizing the ANC's leader, then South African President Jacob Zuma.
He was previously a staunch supporter of Zuma, once saying, “We are ready to take up arms and kill for Zuma.”
In 2010, Malema swore at a BBC journalist, accused him of being a British “agent” and threw him out of a press conference, which was condemned by the ANC. A central part of Malema's politics has been to accuse the United States and Britain of “imperialist” and racist attitudes towards South Africa.
After a series of controversial comments, his public criticism of the neighboring Botswana government as a puppet regime ultimately led to his expulsion from the ANC in 2012.
racial tension is increasing
Malema formed a new party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, in 2013 as a far-left, anti-capitalist movement.
The EFF has called for radical change in South Africa, including redistributing white people's land to blacks who were oppressed under the former apartheid system of racial segregation.
Some of Malema's comments as “Commander in Chief” of the EFF have been criticized as stoking racial tensions in a multiracial country that managed to embrace reconciliation in the post-apartheid years.
“We are not calling for the slaughter of white people – at least for now,” Malema said in one of several speeches to supporters criticizing South Africa's white minority.
He has also made derogatory comments about South Africans of Indian heritage.
Allegations of controversial chanting and hate speech
Malema gained some international notoriety by reviving the apartheid-era chant “Kill the Boer”, which he sang at rallies when he was ANC youth leader and has also done so with the EFF. Boer refers to a white farmer and the chant has been strongly contested as hate speech by groups representing parts of South Africa's white minority.
Malema's party – and mantra – have also been cited by Trump and his supporters, such as South African-born Elon Musk, to make his baseless claims that there is a widespread campaign of violence against South Africa's white farmers.
Malema and the EFF were featured on a video reel that was played in the Oval Office during Trump's dramatic meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last year, when Trump confronted Ramaphosa on the issue.
The Trump administration's accusation that South Africa's black-led government is pursuing an anti-white agenda has been at the center of a major diplomatic spat between the countries.
While Malema and other EFF members serve as lawmakers in parliament, his party has never held political power at the national level and received 10% of the vote in the last national election in 2024. The EFF is not part of the coalition government.
Anarchy in Parliament
Malema and his EFF have also expressed their disapproval of Ramaphosa and the ANC and have been thrown out of Parliament several times for disrupting proceedings.
In 2023, Malema and other EFF members wearing the party's red activist uniforms stormed the stage during a speech by the South African President, leading to a clash with security officers.
gun punishment
Malema was convicted of a firearms offense in October, seven years after he fired a rifle into the air at a political rally.
A group representing South Africa's Afrikaner white minority brought an application pressuring prosecutors to eventually take Malema to court.
He was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday, but filed an appeal and was released on bail pending the appeal. If the conviction is upheld, he will be disqualified from serving as a lawmaker for five years after completing his sentence.
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