Durban - A Pietermaritzburg advocate has opened a criminal case against EFF leader Julius Malema for threats recently made to the police while addressing residents in the Free State.
Advocate Ashin Ashok Kumar Singh, 51, said it was time Malema was held accountable for hateful and racial utterances. He laid the complaint in his private capacity last Tuesday at the Mountain Rise SAPS.
Malema was recorded as saying: "If South African police want a fight, they must declare it. We will treat them the same way we treated them in the 80s. We will not only fight them in the picket lines, we will go to their homes and fight them in their houses with their own families. We are not scared of police.
“We will come for you one by one at your own comfort zone. We will teach you that no one can defeat the power of the masses. Not a policeman, not a police state, not a military state.”
Malema also accused police of defending white supremacy when he spoke about police behaviour during the party's recent protests against racism in Senekal and Brackenfell.
In his affidavit, Singh said members of the police and the South African Minority Rights Equality Movement (SAMREM) approached him to take legal action against Malema.
“It is common knowledge that in the 1980s, a number of policemen were killed due to political unrest. As a member of parliament, Malema should not be making threats that constitute criminal conduct against police and their families.”
He said the EFF had become a lawless and violent organisation and Malema's comments could not go unpunished.
Singh said the words were designed to “incite violence and intimidate police and their families”.
He said police members have told him they feared being attacked by the EFF at work or off-duty.
Singh, a former investigator for the Truth and Reconcilation Commission, (TRC) said the EFF leader’s comments amounted to hate speech. He said said he had invited Malema to debate previous anti-Indian comments, but Malema had not arrived.
Police Minister Bheki Cele said Malema had crossed the line and threats against the police would not be tolerated.
Cele’s spokersperson Lirandzu Themba said police were investigating various cases opened against Malema.
In a statement, the EFF said Malema's comments were taken out of context to make it seem that the EFF posed a threat to law enforcement.
The Post