EFF leader Julius Malema in court after land grab calls
EFF leader Julius Malema is expected to appear in the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday in a case related to his call on supporters to invade vacant land.
Malema has been charged with violating the Riotous Assemblies Act but is challenging the constitutionality of the act and argues that the state is using apartheid-era legislation to charge him.
Fmr NDPP Shaun Abrahams stated in court documents that @EFFSouthAfrica attacks on the 1956 Riotous Assemblies Act used to charge Malema for inciting occupation of land were baseless and act has “long since been stripoed of its apartheid-era baggage”. EFF disagrees. 2/2
— Karyn Maughan (@karynmaughan) December 12, 2018
The charges relate to two incidents.
Malema told the EFF’s elective conference in Bloemfontein in 2014: “We are going to occupy the unoccupied land because we need the land. For us to eat‚ we must have the land. For us to work‚ we must have the land ... I come from Seshego. If there is unoccupied land‚ we will go and occupy the land with my branch. You must go and do the same in the branch where you come from.”
At the time‚ AfriForum laid criminal charges against Malema.
He told supporters in June 2016 in the northern KwaZulu-Natal town of Newcastle: “If we say that South Africa belongs to whites too‚ it means we are defeating what our forefathers were fighting for. These whites found us here and not one of them came with a piece of land in their pockets.”
This is a developing story.