Malema land grab case postponed to Thursday

EFF leader Julius Malem made a brief appearance at the Newcastle Magistrate's Court . Picture: @EFFSouthAfrica/Twitter

EFF leader Julius Malem made a brief appearance at the Newcastle Magistrate's Court . Picture: @EFFSouthAfrica/Twitter

Published Jul 4, 2017

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Newcastle - The case against EFF leader Julius Malema was postponed to Thursday July 6 at the Newcastle Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

Malema, sharply dressed and looking calm, made a brief appearance at the court over his land grab calls to supporters.

He was charged on common law charges of incitement to commit a crime.

The EFF confirmed on Monday that Malema was facing a new charge, which is: "incitement to commit a crime to wit: trespass in contravention of Section 1(1) read with Section 2(1) of the Trespass Act. Act 6 of 1959 as amended by the Criminal Law Amendment Act 59 of 1983". 

Malema's lawyer Tumi Mokoena, during the brief appearance, requested a postponement, pending the outcome of a High Court application on the same matter. 

Another reason cited by Mokoena was that the defence only received the docket for Tuesday's matter in May despite the NPA promising to hand it over in February. 

With the agreement of both parties, Magistrate Theunis Christiaan Lotter Colditz agreed to postpone the matter to allow Malema to file his application.

"The matter has been postponed until July 6, pending the filing of your application, and should the papers be filed and you do not appear; as per the agreement then the matter will be postponed to September 2017," Colditz ruled. 

Malema came under fire in November last year when, following an appearance at the same court, he told his supporters to “occupy the land because they have failed to give you the land”.

“If it means going to prison for telling you to take the land, so be it. I am not scared of prison because of the land question, but I am scared of prison if I go to prison for corruption. I don’t want to go to prison for corruption, but I want to go to prison for the land,” he told supporters.

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