Julius Malema: South Africa’s performative revolutionary is facing his biggest battle

By Ongama Mtimka

Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa’s fourth-largest party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), is a divisive figure: loved by some, hated by others.

Malema made headlines in April 2026 after a lower court found him guilty of illegal possession and discharging of a firearm and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment. He is appealing the conviction and sentence.

Within a few weeks he made headlines again when the country’s Constitutional Court ruled in a case the EFF had brought before it.

The case was about the alleged theft of a large sum of foreign currency from President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa’s private game farm, Phala Phala. The court found in favour of the EFF and the other party to the case, the African Transformation Movement.

Malema hails from Seshego in Limpopo, one of South Africa’s poorer provinces. Born in 1981, he has become something of a generational