The case against him for allegedly firing a weapon during an EFF birthday celebration rally in East London in 2018 was a waste of time and money, EFF leader Julius Malema said after he appeared at the magistrate’s court on Thursday.
“AfriForum is there to defend and protect white privilege, the court should have known them for who they are and refused to prosecute,” Malema said.
“We have had to waste a lot of money coming here for the lawyers.
“What if I had to sell my house to get the best lawyers to represent me?”
During cross-examination, Malema took magistrate Twanet Olivier through three videos.
Malema pointed out a potential suspect and told the court that accused number 2 (Adriaan Snyman) was innocent.
“There are two people approaching me in the video, one is Larry Mabunda, and the other is accused number 2 [Snyman], he and Mabunda were working for the same company.
“An innocent man was charged.
“Both Mabunda and Snyman are coming to me in that video, why is it conclusive that the white man is the one who is charged?” he asked, adding that Snyman was charged because he was assumed to be the company’s owner.
Malema said Mabunda was the person who had signed out the gun on the evening.
Advocate Joel Cesar read out in court statements of VIP protection police who admitted not seeing Malema discharging a firearm on stage.
“The prosecutor admitted in his argument that had he known the facts about Larry Mabunda he would have charged him,” Malema said.
“There were many questions that the prosecutor was asking us which Mabunda could have answered, whether the cartridge was found there, whether the firearm arrived or not.
“They exposed that he was not owning the company at the time there was a person responsible for such licensing of firearms.
“In an extremely embarrassing manner, you see the prosecutor trying to place Snyman at the scene of the crime, which he dismally failed [to do].”
Malema concluded that on the video it was him with Mabunda following closely and when he handed the firearm back to him, Snyman overtook him.
“The idea for the demonstration of the toy gun was a collective decision of the party.”
Malema said in this regard, the NPA allowed itself to be used, based on concocted charges.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said both the state and defence were preparing their heads of argument that they would present to the magistrate.
“We believe that we did our part and we were able to achieve what we wanted to achieve with our cross-examination,” he said.
Heads of argument will be submitted on August 12, with the defence responding on September 12.
Closing arguments will be on November 1.
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