WATCH | Malema urges advocate to apologise for his role in prosecuting anti-apartheid activists

A video of EFF leader Julius Malema asking advocate Jacobus Johannes Strijdom SC apologise for his role in prosecuting anti-apartheid activists has gone viral.

The advocate, who prosecuted public violence cases during the apartheid era, was urged to apologise on Wednesday during a Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interview.

Malema, who is a member of the JSC representing his party, asked Strijdom to take up the opportunity to say sorry.

"[This is your] opportunity to apologise, if you are so willing,” Malema can be heard telling Strijdom in the viral video.

“I apologise that I was part of the apartheid system, that I was a part of the apartheid laws, that we applied those laws and that I was one of the instruments to apply that law. I apologise to those people” said Strijdom.

Malema responded with a “thank you”.

Strijdom was being interviewed for one of the 10 vacancies in the Gauteng division of the high court.

In part of his interview, he said he was a transformed person and regretted being part of the apartheid system at that stage.

“I am a transformed person, especially when you look at our constitution, where you look at equality and humanity. Most of the laws from those days were inhumane,” said Strijdom.

“I regret that I was part of the system at that stage. Unfortunately, I was a prosecutor, I had to do my job and be loyal to the law ... but I can also say that in a lot of those public violence cases, at the end of the day, not many of them went to trial. Most of them were withdrawn.

“Once I started to practise on my own, I started to defend those people from the townships in public violence cases. Since practising as an advocate and having a more objective view of the past, I realise that I’ve got regret.”