Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has been granted leave to appeal his conviction.
In October last year, the KuGompo Magistrate’s Court found Malema guilty of contravening the Firearms Control Act. In April, magistrate Twanet Olivier sentenced him to an effective five years’ direct imprisonment.
Malema was previously granted leave to appeal against his sentence, but not his conviction, following a ruling by Olivier in connection with a 2018 incident in which he was filmed firing a rifle into the air during the party’s fifth anniversary celebrations in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape.
In a letter on Tuesday, Justices Tokota and Lowe said that, having considered the notice of motion and the record of the proceedings in the matter, and having found compelling reasons, they ordered that “leave to appeal against the convictions of the applicant be and is hereby granted to the Full Bench of the Division of the High Court, Makhanda, Eastern Cape.”