‘Clear threat of violence’

GUPTA FAMILY HAS RIGHT NOT TO BE THREATENED BY EFF Judge takes hard line against utterances by Malema.

No reasonable and right-thinking person would consider Julius Malema and the EFF’s statements about the Gupta family not to be a threat of violence, or that they were merely campaigning for the upcoming elections, a high court judge says.

Giving reasons for granting an urgent interdict against Malema and the EFF this week to stop threatening and inciting violence against the Guptas and their employees, Judge Johan Louw said in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria their constitutional right not to be threatened with violence had been infringed.

Gupta brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh turned to the court after a series of public statements by Malema and other leaders of the EFF in which they accused the Guptas of being corrupt and The New Age and ANN7 TV of being a “cartel” with the only objective of looting state resources. Malema previously banned journalists of the two media houses from covering EFF events, saying he could not guarantee their safety.

Malema and the EFF were interdicted from interfering with the activities of any of The New Age and ANN7’s journalists, or preventing them from attending any public events, including those of the EFF, of a political nature.

Malema, whose cries of “Zuptas must fall” reverberated in parliament during President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address on Thursday night, denied threatening the Guptas or the reporters with violence, but reiterated his party’s intention to drive the family out of the country.

The EFF has accused the Guptas of “greed, downright thuggery” and being involved in “money laundering and racketeering” and stated that they would physically drive them out of the country “by any means possible”. Some executives of Gupta companies got threatening calls this week.

Louw said Malema and the EFF never denied making the statements and refused to retract them. Their statement that no one could guarantee the Guptas’ safety in Gauteng was intended as a threat of violence, he found. –

Picture: Reuters A traditional performer sprays molten iron against a wall to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Nuanquan town in Hebei province this week.

Picture: Refilwe Modise ‘ZUPTAS MUST GO’. EFF leader Julius Malema says the party’s stated intention is to drive the Gupta family out of the country ‘by any means possible’.