It was all an act: Malema sticks to his guns over ‘rifle’
EFF leader Julius Malema is sticking to his guns and continued to insist that he did not fire a real gun or live ammunition during the party’s fifth birthday bash in East London.
Malema again insisted that he fired a toy gun on stage last Saturday at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium – and that the noise heard in a video was the firework display that occurred at the same time.
It was also the fifth time the party did the “simulation”‚ he said.
A video of the incident has been widely circulated on social media.
“It coincided with fireworks all the time in the celebration of the EFF. Unfortunately you are seeing it for the first time. There was no gun… I will not even discharge a firearm amongst our own members‚ because I know how dangerous it is. There was no live ammunition at all‚” Malema said on Frankly Speaking‚ broadcast on Sunday.
Malema also questioned the authenticity of the video.
“There’s a white police chap there in East London who moves around with a cartridge who says to the forensic‚ ‘Let’s go and create the crime scene and then I will put this‚’” Malema said.
The host interjects: “Like framing?”
Malema replies: “I don’t understand where does it come from‚ because if there was a genuine cartridge‚ you can go to the scene and find it there. Why do you have to create a crime scene?”
TimesLIVE asked national police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo on Monday if it had been established if the video of Malema going around on social media was real‚ and if he fired a real gun with live ammunition.
Other questions asked included:
- if the gun was taken for ballistics testing?
- if police had taken a statement from Malema or any eyewitnesses?
- who owned the gun?
Naidoo did not answer these questions‚ instead responding with a blanket statement.
“The matter is still under investigation and we will not be giving a blow-by-blow account of the investigation‚” Naidoo said.
Political analyst Justice Malala said on Thursday that if the shooting was part of an act‚ it was expertly coordinated.
“Hundred out of hundred for the EFF. Because they managed to coordinate the dastardly white man [Malema’s bodyguard Adriaan Snyman] giving him [Malema] the rifle‚ him [Malema] jumping around and seeming to pull the trigger and [the fireworks] going off all at the same time. That is coordination‚” he said on CliffCentral.com.