If you think about it, the court saga which arose because Julius Malema fired an assault rifle into the air – and which saw him handed a five-year jail sentence yesterday – has played nicely into the hands of the EFF leader.
Being allowed to appeal the sentence – and he has vowed to take it all the way to the Constitutional Court if necessary – means, effectively, that he won’t have to exchange his BMWs and Breitlings for prison’s orange overalls.
Nor will he have to give up his platform as an MP in the National Assembly. At the same time, though, his supporters and those sympathetic to him will see the jail term – which will likely be reduced on appeal – as evidence that he is being persecuted by the enemies of his “revolution”.
In other words, you become a martyr without actually having to die.
What’s not to like about that?
With the EFF having had a dismal showing in last year’s elections, but still managing to exert a disproportional amount of influence in various municipal councils through coalition arrangements, the persecution narrative arrives at the perfect time for Malema and the EFF to remind people that they are the only ones continuing to fight the “struggle”.
Perhaps Malema emerging as a man from the trenches of that struggle might elevate the party into the ranks of serious political players…
However, the bigger picture of the case is that it would not have happened at all were it not for the intervention of AfriForum, who pressured the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) into bringing charges.
It raises the question about how many others of the connected political elite have been given a free pass by the NPA.
While that legal security umbrella exists for lawbreakers, the entire Malema matter is nothing more than a diverting sideshow.
