EFF LEADER JULIUS MALEMA SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON

 EFF leader Julius Malema  convicted of five offences, including the unlawful possession of a firearm, discharging it in public and reckless endangerment.

By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief, The Azanian

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KuGompo City, 16 April 2026 — EFF leader Julius Malema, 45, has been sentenced to five years after being found guilty of the illegal possession of a gun and firing it in public.

Magistrate Twanet Olivier allowed the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters and MP to appeal against the verdict and sentencing, meaning he will not immediately be taken to prison.

Standing in court in a dark suit and red tie, Malema showed little emotion as Olivier read out the sentence even though his political future is at stake.

Last year, he was convicted of five offences, including the unlawful possession of a firearm, discharging it in public and reckless endangerment.

The charges related to an incident in 2018 when video emerged showing Malema using a semi-automatic rifle to fire several shots in the air during his party's fifth anniversary celebrations in the Eastern Cape.

During the trial in KuGompo City, the new name for East London, Malema told the court that the firearm was not his and that he had fired the shots to rouse the crowd.

During her sentencing ruling Olivier said "it wasn't... an impulsive act. It was the event of the evening." She added that while his political standing had no bearing on her findings, he was someone who had a large following in South Africa and should account for his actions.

Hundreds of EFF supporters gathered outside court chanting revolutionary songs. When news came through that he would be allowed to appeal, they called out in Xhosa "sigoduka naye" — "we are leaving with him today."

Malema vowed to take a challenge to the judgment up to South Africa's highest court, the Constitutional Court.