WeeklySA_AdminNEXUS: Julius Malema’s sentencing has ignited fierce claims of political targeting and racial bias, with critics arguing the case exposes deeper fault lines in South Africa’s justice system and land debate…
By Sekola Sello
The sentence imposed on Julius Sello Malema is what many fair-minded Black South Africans expected – save for those who have been living under a huge rock for centuries.
Now that the charade of a fair trial is over, let us look at the cold objective facts and not the hallucinations of some people.
Malema’s call for the expropriation of land without compensation has made him the Enemy Number One among White South Africans. Rightwing Whites across the globe, including United States President Donald Trump, have rallied behind White South Africans in this matter.
During President Cyril Ramaphosa’s meeting with Trump at the White House last year, our president was asked by his US counterpart when he was going to jail Malema over his political utterances. Less than a year later he is sentenced to a five-year prison term. Mere coincidence. No ways.
This is the real reason behind the conviction and sentencing of Malema. Nothing less. Nothing more.
It is against this background that this matter must be seen..
The land issue
The sentence imposed on Julius Sello Malema was to be expected by any right thinking Black person unless one has been living under a huge rock..
From the day that Afriforum brought this case against the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the objective was clear.
This was to end the political career of Malema and by extension weaken, if not decapitate and silence the true voice of Black people.
Afriforum leaders and their members can all deny until they are blue in their faces, but the truth is simply that their organisation is racist. Its members have never accepted the reality of 1994 and are still hankering after the return of full-blown apartheid.
Freedom Front leader Dr Pieter Groenewald has stated publicly in Parliament that there would be civil war in this country if the ruling African National Congress or any Black political party were to implement the policy of expropriation of land without compensation.
The Freedom Front and Afriforum are fundamentally two sides of the same coin. Both are using different strategies to achieve the same objective, which is the return of apartheid.
Both want to see Black people who constitute 80 percent of the population to continue occupying only 13 percent of the land.
The trial and conviction of Malema has brought into sharp focus the reality of South Africa and the nexus between politics, the law and race. I am a Black South African with no training in law.
At my age, I am turning 74 in a matter of days, I can boldly declare that I have been around long enough to understand matters of race very well. I also have a good grasp of politics of this country.
The trial and conviction of Malema has brought into sharp focus the reality of South Africa and the nexus between politics, the law and race.
Discharging a firearm in public is regarded as a criminal offence. This is what the law says. Here is the reality of what happens in this country on a daily basis; firearms are often discharged at funerals in the townships as a send-off to a deceased person.
Firearms are also often discharged as a form of celebration. These things happen in certain circumstances in the presence of a battalion of policemen and other law enforcement officers.
The masquerade
These law enforcement officers are smart enough to realise the futility of apprehending those engaged in such activities. They realise the law is being broken but what point does it serve in making the arrest.
Having followed this case from the start nothing can convince me that this was a legal matter pure and simple. In my view this was a racist and political trial masquerading as a purely criminal trial.
On April 8, I attended the funeral of Vicky Kgotleng. She was married to former photographer and Robben Island prisoner Moffat Zungu. Ms Kgotleng had been detained several times for her political activism.
She was a member of the Pan Africanist Congress and I suspect it’s then military wing, Apla. At her funeral at the Nasrec Memorial Park in Soweto, Apla members discharged firearms as a send-off to a fallen manner.
I did not feel threatened by this discharge of firearms. I do not think any of the mourners felt threatened in any way. I am stating this to show how common this practice has become.
I am also stating this to debunk the claim made by Magistrate Twanet Olivier that when Malema discharged the firearm at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in the then East London, now called KuGompo City lives were threatened. This was a celebratory act. How could Malema want to harm his own supporters?
While the first prize of the racists has always been to decapitate its leadership starting with Malema, there is a multi-pronged strategy at play. Weaken the party as well by sowing divisions within it.
The departure of Floyd Shivambo, Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, Advocate Dali Mpofu and a few other Members of Parliament soon after the 2024 General Elections had the effect of harming the image of the party and sowing doubts among rank and file supporters..
The proliferation of several parties targeting the Black voters has also eaten into the support base of the EFF. These parties are well-funded by White capital.
The case against Malema which has taken eight years to conclude has also eaten into the coffers of the parties apart from destabilising its activities.
The case against Malema was also revealing in another respect. The level of hatred among Black people who are opposed to his stance on the issue of a borderless South Africa and his unwavering support for African immigrants inside the country..
Hidden forces at play
One woman who has been in the forefront in the anti-immigration campaigns was gushing with excitement at the prospect of Malema being given a long custodial sentence. This was two days before Olivier passed the sentence.
In her TikTok post she tweeted “Our hopes depend on this woman (Olivier) her face flush with glee. TikTok was full of Blacks expressing such sentiments.
This was no longer political differences with Malema and the EFF. It is unadulterated hatred. Pure and simple. This woman claims she is a member of “the VF” which I guess this stands for Vryheid Front, the party led by Groenewald.
I was a young teenager when Africa’s foremost Pan Africanist and first president of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup. In the run-up leading to his overthrow, the press in Ghana was replete with articles villifying his administration. The vitriol aimed at Malema is no different.
Several years later declassified documents showed that both the Central Intelligence Agency and their British counterparts were responsible for the coup and the propaganda campaign against Nkrumah. The onslaught against Malema has all the hallmarks of a campaign driven by hidden forces country.
The onslaught against Malema must not be allowed to succeed or else the little gains our people have made against apartheid will be obliterated.
Sekola Sello is a retired veteran journalist
