South Africa’s Julius Malema convicted for firing gun at 2018 rally

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South African opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema gestures as he delivers a speech during a press conference on February 15, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. / AFP PHOTO / GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (Photo credit should read GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images)

South African opposition leader Julius Malema has been found guilty of unlawfully discharging a firearm in public during a political rally in 2018, a conviction that carries a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party leader was convicted on five counts, including unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, discharging a firearm in a public space and reckless endangerment.

Reports indicate that Magistrate Twanet Olivier delivered the judgment after three days, postponing the case to January 2026 for pre-sentencing.

“You are found guilty as charged,” the judge ruled, according to the BBC.

The charges stem from a widely circulated video showing Malema firing between 14 and 15 live rounds into the air while on stage before 20,000 supporters at the EFF’s fifth anniversary celebrations.

Prosecutors argued the incident endangered the public, while Malema maintained the gun was not his and claimed he fired the shots to excite the crowd. His former bodyguard, Adriaan Snyman, who was tried alongside him, was acquitted.

The prosecution followed a complaint by the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, which has long been at loggerheads with Malema and his party. The group also pursued hate speech complaints against him, one of which led to his conviction in August by South Africa’s Equality Court.

Malema has often drawn criticism with his calls for the seizure of white-owned land and redistribution of wealth.

Just weeks before the gun ruling, he was found guilty of hate speech after telling supporters that “a revolution demands that at some point there must be killing,” remarks the court said amounted to incitement.

The latest conviction is the latest in a series of legal troubles that have followed Malema since his days as a youth leader in the African National Congress (ANC) before he broke away to start the EFF.

Despite the setbacks, he remains popular with many young and working-class South Africans who see him as a defender of economic justice.