Malema gets a shot at fighting gun conviction

• Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema can now appeal his firearm convictions, the Makhanda High Court ruled on 28 September.

• Julius Malema got five years in prison in April but has not served time, because his sentence is under appeal.

Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, has been given the right to appeal his five firearm convictions. The Makhanda High Court in the Eastern Cape signed the order on Monday, 28 September 2026.

Leave to appeal means the court has agreed to hear the appeal. Two judges read Malema’s application and the court record and found “compelling reasons”, the order says.

The appeal will go to a Full Bench of the High Court in Makhanda.

Malema was found guilty in October 2025 of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, firing a firearm in a built-up area, failing to take reasonable precautions and reckless endangerment. The charges come from the Economic Freedom Fighters’ fifth anniversary celebrations at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane in July 2018.

Magistrate Twanet Olivier sentenced him to five years in prison on 16 April 2026 at the KuGompo court, in the city formerly called East London. That court let him appeal the sentence but refused him leave to appeal the convictions. Malema then took that request to the High Court.

Malema left court on 16 April without going to prison. Daily Maverick reported that he remains convicted and sentenced, and that the appeal only pauses the sentence.

Eyewitness News reported in June that Malema’s court papers say no witness saw him fire a weapon. They also say no fingerprint or DNA evidence linked him to the firearm or the spent cartridge. He also questions how the video evidence was handled. The State opposed his application and said he has no reasonable prospects of success.

The order does not give a date for the appeal hearing.