By Marcus Moloko
Julius Malema walked out of the East London Magistrate’s Court on Thursday with a five-year prison sentence hanging over his head, buying time through an appeal but not escaping a ruling that could still upend his parliamentary future and jolt the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) before local government elections.
The party’s president was sentenced to five years for unlawful possession of a firearm and two years for unlawful possession of ammunition.
Malema was found guilty last year on five charges stemming from the firing of a rifle at the EFF’s 2018 anniversary rally.
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He was also fined on three other counts, including discharging a firearm in a built-up area, with the sentences running concurrently to an effective five years.
The most immediate political fact was not the sentence itself, but that Malema did not go
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