Scores of EFF members descended on East London in anticipation of their party leader Julius Malema’s pre-sentencing proceedings after his conviction on several firearm-related charges. As Julius Malema boarded his plane en route to Buffalo City, where he is scheduled to make his next court appearance, the streets of East London ran red. Supporters, donning an assortment of red shirts, caps, berets and flags, flooded the streets of the city’s CBD late on Thursday afternoon, marching and singing in support of the EFF leader.
“You come for him, you come for all of us. We stand together as one!” a member of the crowd shouted as they marched down Currie Street. Meanwhile, others gathered outside the East London Airport eagerly awaiting his arrival.
Malema returns to the East London Magistrates’ Court, where his pre-sentencing proceedings are expected to get under way after he was convicted in 2025 on several firearms-related charges. The charges date back to 2018 when Malema was attending the EFF’s fifth birthday celebrations at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane. The court found that Malema had taken an assault rifle from his former bodyguard and co-accused, Adriaan Snyman, and fired several shots into the air during the event.
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The court rejected Malema’s claims that the assault rifle was a toy and fired blanks, and he was found guilty of several crimes, including unlawful possession of a firearm‚ unlawful possession of ammunition‚ discharging a firearm in a built-up area or public place and reckless endangerment of people or property. Snyman was acquitted of the charges against him, which included failing to take reasonable precautions to avoid danger to people or property and providing a firearm/ammunition to a person not allowed to possess it.
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