High Court gives Malema permission to appeal firearm conviction

The Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda has granted EFF president Julius Malema leave to appeal his conviction on firearm charges.

Malema was found guilty of contravening the Firearms Control Act by the East London Magistrate’s Court last year and handed an effective five years in direct imprisonment by Magistrate Twanet Olivier in April.

Malema and his bodyguard, Adriaan Snyman, have been on trial for several years for discharging a firearm at the party’s fifth birthday celebrations in Mdantsane in 2018.

In her April ruling, after hearing arguments from the state and the defence, Olivier said she stood by her sentence, but another court could come to a different conclusion.

This court does not have any intention to stand in the way of such a possibility.

The court, however, refused leave to appeal the conviction.