AlgoaFM News
The East London Magistrates Court has dismissed the Section 174 discharge application of EFF party leader Julius Malema in his firearms trial.
Malema and his guard, Adriaan Snyman were charged with six counts of contravening the Firearms Control Act after a video emerged of Malema firing what appears to be an automatic rifle at the party’s fifth celebrations in Mdantsane in 2018.
In dismissing the application, Magistrate Twanet Olivier said the 19 witnesses led by State Prosecutor Joel Cesar had provided sufficient evidence for the trial to go forward.
She said Malema’s argument of the rifle observed in the video being a stage gun is not enough evidence to absolve him of the charges he faces.
Addressing his co-accused, Magistrate Olivier said too much emphasis had been placed on whether Synman could be observed handing a firearm to Malema while that was not even the charge.
“It is to unlawfully supply or in any other manner give possession of a firearm or ammunition so the actual observation of a handover is not a requirement.”
Malema faces charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition and three counts of contravening the Firearms Control Act, while his co-accused faces an additional charge of failure to take reasonable precautions to avoid danger to a person’s property.
Rehashing the evidence led by Advocate Cesar, Magistrate Olivier said it was confirmed that the firearm in question belonged to Snyman’s tactical response company. And that the cartridge that was picked up at the scene after the incident is linked with a microscopic ballistics analysis of the firearm provided by the accused.
Olivier said it came as no surprise that no fingerprint or DNA linked Malema to the cartridges found on the scene, however, Amanda Steenkamp a facial recognition expert, had positively identified Malema in the CCTV and control images provided.
Court adjourned and the Commander in Chief addressed hundreds of EFF supporters outside.
He was accompanied by the EFF leaders in all nine provinces including EFF’s former National Chairperson, Advocate Dali Mpofu and Commissar Godrich Gardee.
“I am not scared of prison, when you are a revolutionary prison is your nickname… No racist Magistrate can stop me from executing that which I stand for. No small boy of a prosecutor can persecute me and jail me for what I stand for,” he addressed the crowd standing in the scorching heat.
Malema said they asked to postpone the case to July next year because they did not want to be held up before elections while other politicians were busy campaigning.
He further fired shots at Magistrate Olivier calling her an “incompetent magistrate who comes late to court, who can't get her papers in order, who can't read her own judgement, who adjourns the court during judgement to go backseat and receive Pravin Gordhan’s call and Ramaphosa’s call and when she comes back to give her judgement she is shaking like hell because it is a sponsored judgement.”
The trial has been postponed to 15 July and is expected to sit for two days.
