Prominent 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.
But Magistrate Twenet Ollivier allowed the Economic Freedom Fighters leader and MP to appeal the sentence, meaning he was not immediately taken to jail.
Earlier, standing in court in a dark suit and red tie, Malema showed little emotion as Olivier read the sentence, even though his political future was at stake.
Last year, he was convicted of five crimes, including illegally possessing a firearm, discharging it in public and recklessly endangering.
Malema was able to walk out of court and greet his supporters as the appeal process now begins
If his conviction is upheld, Malema will be disqualified from becoming an MP for five years. However, political analyst Sandile Swana told the BBC that the appeal process was likely to take several years, so EFF leaders would be able to pursue their political careers in the meantime.
The charges relate to an incident in 2018 when a video emerged showing Malema firing a semi-automatic rifle in the air during his party's fifth anniversary celebrations held in the country's Eastern Cape province.
During his trial in the town of Kugompo, the new name for East London, Malema told the court that he had fired the shots in celebration.
But during the sentencing, Ollivier said, “This… was not an impulsive act. It was an incident in the evening,” AFP news agency reports.
They said that although his political position had no bearing on their findings, he was a man who had a large following in South Africa and should account for his actions.
Addressing some of those followers outside the court, he made a number of unfounded allegations against Ollivier and said, without presenting direct evidence, that the conviction and sentence were the result of a conspiracy.
“They are trying to suppress this voice by all means. They will never win,” AFP quoted him as saying. “We are fighting the enemy and the enemy is white supremacy.”
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 came to support Malema with chants and revolutionary songs.
When news came that he would be allowed to appeal, he began saying “Sigoduka nye” in the Xhosa language, which translates as “We are going with him today”.
Supporters of Malema's party have come out in force to show their solidarity
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.
After being found guilty last October, Malema was quoted as telling people outside the court that “going to jail or dying is a mark of honour”.
“We cannot be afraid of going to jail (or) 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.
The secretary-general of the ANC, who leads a 10-party coalition government that does not include the EFF, expressed sympathy for Malema.
“The main message being sent to us here by the racist AfriForum is that if we dare to stand up for black people, dare to stand up for the marginalized and dare to stand up for our generational mission we will be targeted,” Fikile Mbalula wrote on X in response to Thursday's sentencing.
AfriForum has previously said it condemns all forms of racism and a spokesperson said the case was about “reckless and illegal actions”, not race.
The organization also played a role in another conviction against Malema.
Last August, he was found guilty of hate speech by the equality court following comments he made at a rally in 2022.
After an incident where a white man allegedly attacked an EFF member, Malema said: “No white man will beat me… You should never be afraid to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing.”
The Equality Court ruled that the comments “demonstrate an intention to cause harm”, but the EFF said they were taken out of context.
Malema has also been criticized for singing a song at political rallies that includes the words “Shoot the boer (African); shoot the farmer”.
US President Donald Trump raised the issue during a tense meeting at the White House with South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa last May.
African lobby groups have tried to ban the song, but South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that a “reasonably well-informed person” would understand that the song, which is associated with the fight against white-minority rule, should not be taken literally and was therefore not hate speech.
Additional reporting by Nobuhle Simelane
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