Police charge Malema under old apartheid law

13 October 2016

Johannesburg – Straight after a press conference where Julius Malema pledged support for Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, he was handed a summons by police indicating that he was being charged for contravening the apartheid-era Riotous Assemblies Act.

Malema was told that police were waiting for him while he was wrapping up the media briefing at the EFF's headquarters in Johannesburg on Thursday.

"The SG has just passed me a piece of paper, saying the police are outside to serve a summons on me about something I said at UFS (University of Free State) in 2014," Malema told journalists.

He described the act as that of a desperate state and said he was not scared.

A group of police officials, dressed in civilian clothing, made their way into the EFF’s offices and handed over the summons to Malema. When asked if they were from the NPA, the one carrying the docket, replied "no".

The two charges are for contravention of section 18 (2) (b) of the Riotous Assemblies Act. The summons alleges that on the December 16, during the party’s elective conference, Malema incited party members to commit a crime, by occupying any vacant land they came across. A second summons indicated that he has been charged a second time for a similar transgression for making the same call in Newcastle on the June 26.

Apartheid tactic

It was widely reported in 2014 that Afriforum had laid charges against Malema for the land invasion speech at UFS.

In reacting to the summons, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu called the move an "apartheid era tactic".

"The state takes the act of charging him for a political speech, exactly what the apartheid murderous regime used to do," said Shivambu.

He said the government was using a 1956 law to go after Malema.

"We have degenerated back to what the apartheid regime used to do. The ANC is behaving exactly the same way as the apartheid regime used to do. They absolved themselves from killing workers in Marikana, now its employing racist apartheid era tactics.”

This article first appeared on News24, see here.