Malema says assault is baseless

EFF leader Julius Malema has dismissed his assault case as baseless after it was postponed to March by the Randburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Malema was in the dock with EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, accused of assaulting a policeman who refused them entrance to the burial site of Struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Police officer Johannes Venter alleged in court that he was pushed by Malema and Ndlozi while he was still standing in front of their EFF vehicle making a call to the venue operation centre to get further instructions after Malema insisted on entering with the car, which he said was not permitted.

The two EFF leaders have pleaded not guilty, and Malema told the party’s supporters who had been camping outside the court since Wednesday that he was confident that his defence counsel, advocate Lawrence Hodes, would win the case.

“If they don’t win this case then they must know that they have compromised their career,” Malema said.

Inside the courtroom, Hodes spent most of the day trying to poke holes in Venter’s evidence.

“Your version of events started with ‘the people were not allowed into the ceremony’. It developed to ‘the vehicle was not allowed into the ceremony because it was not accredited’. It then developed to ‘even if it was accredited you wouldn’t have let it in’. It then went to ‘it was not part of the convoy’,” Hodes said.

Venter had told the court that only the family and military convoy, which included President Cyril Ramaphosa, was allowed to enter the Fourways Memorial Park Cemetery in cars.

But the court heard that Madikizela-Mandela’s daughter, Zindzi Mandela, had written a statement saying Malema had the go-ahead.

The case will resume on March 9.