Julius Malema’s Shooting Incident Triggers Imitators Around South Africa, Claims Group

Julius Malema’s firing of what looked like an assault rifle at the EFF’s five-year anniversary in July 2018, has set off imitators around South Africa, threatening public safety, claims civil rights organisation AfriForum.

AfriForum cited three subsequent incidents involving firing shots in the air, all of which occurred in March 2019.

In one, the owner of a security firm with links to the Dundee Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, fired shots with objects that looked like firearms, in a residential area.

In another incident, close to Bethal in Mpumlanga, “a person in an MK Veteran’s uniform fired an object that looks like a hand weapon”. The man was apparently on the back of a Govan Mbeki Municipality truck and fired the shots in a residential area, in front of local traffic police.

The third incident allegedly took place in front of Johannesburg Metro Police. On 27 March various people fired shots with several firearms in Bedfordview, Gauteng. Authorities are investigating.

AfriForum said in a statement today that they warned last year that if the EFF leader’s actions weren’t prosecuted by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) immediately, it would create a “dangerous precedent”.

They claim their warning fell on deaf ears and the “tendency to fire weapons into the air took root – despite other peoples’ safety”.

AfriForum did bring criminal charges against Malema shortly after the initial incident, and the dossier is being completed by the NPA, it said.

At the time the SAPS special unit, the Hawks, did investigate the Durban (Bluff) home of Malema’s bodyguard, Adriaan Snyman, who is seen in the video to be handing the supposed weapon to Malema. Hawks reportedly confiscated 12 firearms.

Malema insisted it was just a “toy gun” and that it coincided with fireworks. “I will not even discharge a firearm amongst our own members‚ because I know how dangerous it is. There was no live ammunition at all,” he told SA media.

Last week News24 editor Adriaan Basson wrote in an article titled “Are the authorities afraid of Julius Malema”: “Almost nine months after EFF leader Julius Malema illegally fired an assault rifle from the stage of an EFF rally in the Eastern Cape, he is yet to be arrested or charged.”

AfriForum has reported the more recent ‘copycat’ incidents to the SAPS.

“Malema set a very troublesome example through his reckless actions. His actions, now being imitated across the country, threaten public safety and undermine current firearm legislation,” says Marnus Kamfer, AfriForum’s Legal and Risk Manager for Community Safety.

“The fact that politicians, who are also electoral candidates and serve in Parliament, set these bad examples, resulting in an upsurge of similar actions, points to the seriousness of the matter,” says Ian Cameron, AfriForum’s Head of Community Safety.

AfriForum has been a constant thorn in Malema’s side, with the group recently boasting that it had paid legal costs against illegal land invaders and the SAPS using funds paid to them by Malema and the EFF after “they had lost numerous cases to AfriForum with cost”.

WATCH The original incident in which EFF leader Julius Malema appears to fire an assault rifle in the air

Yesterday, Malema paid tribute to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela who passed away a year ago:

We remember you freedom fighter, Mmago ngwana o swara thipa ka bogaleng. pic.twitter.com/qWieGRIlDu

— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema) April 2, 2019

The South African Human Rights Commission released its findings last week that Malema’s “slaughtering” comment, amongst others, did not constitute hate speech:

Speaking outside the Newcastle magistrate court in November 2016, Malema had said: “They found peaceful Africans here. They killed them. They slaughtered them like animals. We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people – at least for now. What we are calling for is the peaceful occupation of the land and we don’t owe anyone an apology for that.”

This past weekend Malema issued a call against xenophobia, saying “stop attacking our brothers from Africa”. Malema said the lack of jobs was not the fault of foreign nationals taking them but “because whites are refusing to invest money”.

He also said: “It’s the white people who are hiring Zimbabweans and paying them low wages.  These borders were not created by us. Africa is not a continent, Africa is a country. From Cairo to Cape Town, Madagascar to Morocco. There is no way you can say another African is lost in Africa.”