Malema accuses the State of charging him illegally

EFF leader Julius Malema has accused the State of wrongfully trying to justify the continuation of criminal charges of incitement against him by using cases of people who were convicted for sleeping with prostitutes and killing rhinos.

Malema attacked the State through his legal counsel advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi after counsel for the State argued yesterday the

EFF leader was not the first person to be charged under the Riotous Assemblies Act in post-apartheid South Africa.

State counsel Hilton Epstein is opposing Malema’s application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to declare Section 18 (2) (b) to be unconstitutional and unlawful.

Malema launched the application in the High Court after civil society organisation Afriforum lodged incitement charges against him for comments he made on December 16, 2014, in Bloemfontein; June 26, 2016; and November 7, 2016, in Newcastle.

Malema is accused of having encouraged his EFF supporters to occupy vacant land. In one of the incidents, he is charged for allegedly telling his supporters to occupy vacant land which was taken away from black people through genocide by white people.

He argued that he was charged under a law – the Riotous Assemblies Act – which was promulgated during apartheid to suppress black political parties and leaders such as Nelson Mandela.

Malema said the specific section of the law was promulgated in 1956 following the adoption of the Freedom Charter by the ANC in Kliptown, Soweto, in June 1955.