AfriForum hits Julius Malema with R500,000 fine and 18 months prison sentence contempt of court application

AfriForum has filed a contempt of court application against EFF leader Julius Malema and his party over continued incitement to land occupation.

AfriForum chief executive Kallie Kriel announced that they filed the application at the High Court in Pretoria.

The application followed the EFF and Malema’s renewed calls for illegal land occupation in recent weeks.

Last month, Malema encouraged black people living in townships to take land owned by white people, as it would improve their lives.

He shared his views on South Africa, the economy, and land occupation during a lecture at the University of Limpopo.

“Those guys in Kayamandi live crammed together on a hill, and right next to them is beautiful, green land spanning many hectares,” he said.

“On this land, there is just one house belonging to a white man on 3,000 hectares of land. It is a British colonial-style house. They will never go there.”

When Malema visited Kayamandi, he told the residents, “We must go and take that land. We must go and occupy that land. We can’t live like this.”

“They did not go. However, I will never stop, because politicising people isn’t a quick fix. It takes time.”

“So, one day, when the youth of Kayamandi stand up and go into that farm in Stellenbosch, they will be speaking about us.”

This, Kriel explained, happened despite a court order obtained by AfriForum in 2017 that prohibits them from making any such calls.

This order prohibits the EFF and Malema from inciting, encouraging, ordering, or recruiting any person to enter land without the necessary permission.

Since then, the EFF and Malema have made several unsuccessful attempts to have the order set aside.

The application at the Constitutional Court was dismissed in March 2023, after which the application at the Supreme Court of Appeal also failed in June of that year.

A second attempt to have the order set aside by the Constitutional Court was also dismissed in September 2023.

Based on the court order, AfriForum has filed an application seeking to have Malema and the EFF found guilty of contempt of court.

It asked that Malema be imposed with a fine of R500 000 and a prison sentence of 18 months, or another appropriate sanction.

“The EFF and Malema know what the court order stipulates and have spent years unsuccessfully trying to overturn it,” Kriel said.

“They are now wilfully ignoring the order, and AfriForum will ensure that they face the consequences of their actions.”