Pretoria – EFF leader Julius Malema said his acquittal in the assault case against him and EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi was a victory against racism in South Africa.
Malema spoke to a throng of supporters outside the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, after magistrate Leiland Poonsamy found that the duo’s actions were justified.
“Comrades, we want to thank the leadership of the EFF for believing in us, and for knowing that we are not crazy people who go around beating up people without any justification. We want to thank our legal team which believed in our case. The majority of them are white people, they were heavily criticised (by those saying) why are they representing black people? They (lawyers) said they are not for the race but they are for justice,” said Malema to cheering followers.
“Today, they demonstrated they are the best legal minds in South Africa. We are proud of our legal teams and we want to say to them, thank you. It is not yet uhuru. There are many battles ahead and we are going to fight many others.”
The EFF duo was represented by a team led by advocate Laurence Hodes SC.
Last month, the party celebrated another milestone court victory when judgment was handed down in the Equality Court, sitting at the High Court in Joburg, in the “Dubul’ ibhunu”, translated as “Shoot the boer” or “Kill the boer” song case.
This matter was brought before the court as hate speech by AfriForum, which lost.
“Today, AfriForum is applying to appeal (the court ruling). That will be their life. They will appeal until they become purple because they will never win against the EFF. When we say to them, the EFF leads through superior logic they thought we were joking. The judge said the evidence given by accused number one and two can never be disputed on anything – not even the smallest piece. Judges keep saying that which leaders of the EFF say in court, they are correct. It is judges who are sober, who make sober judgments,” said Malema.
“Today we defeated racism, we defeated AfriForum. We demonstrated that we are always on the side of the law. Our pushing of that white man, it was a pushing of white supremacy not necessarily a human being. Black and white, we are together. We are not together with white supremacy, the racists wherever they are. They must know that whenever they see a red beret, they must go and hide because the EFF will never tolerate racism in South Africa.”
In court, the magistrate cleared Malema and Ndlozi of wrongdoing.
“I find that the action of the accused, at first glance, appears to be unlawful, but after carefully assessing the evidence, one can never assault any other human being to gain an entry. The evidence in its totality also confirms the version of the accused before court,” Poonsamy said.
“The accused lack intent to commit the offence of assault in this regard. Even when the court assessed the version of the accused, the court finds that the accused’s version is reasonably, possibly true. Therefore, I accept that the defence of justification is to be applied and the accused had no intent to assault the complainant.”
“Both accused are therefore found not guilty and acquitted of the charge of assault,” he said.
The two were accused of assaulting police officer Lieutenant-Colonel Johannes Venter at the funeral of Struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in April 2018.
Venter, who is attached to the police’s presidential protection unit and was in charge of access control on the day, claimed that the two assaulted him while he was still standing in front of the EFF vehicle.
A brawl erupted after Venter blocked the vehicle occupied by the opposition politicians, after Malema insisted on entering with the vehicle. Venter insisted the Mercedes-Benz was not permitted to enter the Fourways Memorial Park Cemetery, where Madikizela-Mandela was laid to rest.
IOL