Africa News
WATCH: Ndlozi slams AfriForum’s claims that #Malema fired shots─── 09:10 Thu, 02 Aug 2018
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, has dismissed AfriForum’s allegation that party leader Julius Malema fired an assault rifle during the party’s fifth-anniversary celebrations in East London.
AfriForum filed criminal charges against Malema at Lyttleton Police Station in Centurion, south of Pretoria, on Wednesday.
Ndlozi says the allegations have no basis and that the alleged firearm was not real.
“It was not a firearm and no real ammunition or bullets were fired. It was emulation as part of the celebrations of the EFF that was also coordinated with fireworks. We did that to evoke both celebration and memory of our struggle during colonial and apartheid times.”.
“AfriForum is obviously being opportunistic in this case because it is very clear as a bunch of Ku Klux Klan, they have made the Commander in Chief of the EFF and the EFF their agenda. Motivated obviously by anti-black race. Because they led a march called Black Monday in which real guns were displayed and in some instances fired. It is important to ask them whether they have also, in that case, open cases against those people if they so care about public law,” adds Ndlozi.
AfriForum Head of Community Safety, Ian Cameron says the civil group reported Malema to the police following a video that went viral on social media showing the EFF leader discharging what looks like a rifle in public during the party’s 5th anniversary in Eastern Cape over the weekend.
Cameron says Malema’s actions as captured on the video clip show that he had violated the gun control laws.
News24 reports that after the incident, Malema hands the fire-arm over to a man, who appears to be Bluff security company owner, Adriaan Snyman, who then quickly ducks out of the camera's shot. Malema then gives a high-five to EFF chairperson, advocate Dali Mpofu.
When asked if he was present and took the rifle from Malema, Snyman told News24 that he was not aware of anything. "Phone me back in the morning," he said. On Wednesday morning, Snyman told News24 that he was not aware of the video and asked to be called back later.
Snyman has previously been identified as one of Malema's bodyguards.
Cameron says they have also added the EFF Chief of Security, who handed Malema the gun, to their charge sheet.
