While President Cyril Ramaphosa was being sworn-in at the Union Buildings, EFF president Julius Malema spent his day in the East London Magistrate’s Court, where he and his bodyguard, Adriaan Snyman, took the stand in the matter of their alleged discharge of a firearm in public in 2018.
The case returned to the East London Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, after Snyman called on the expert testimony of lawyer and firearms expert Martin Hood as their first witness.
Malema and his bodyguard are facing charges of firing or discharging live ammunition, in which Snyman is accused of having given his firearm to an unlicensed individual in Malema.
The incident happened during the EFF’s fifth anniversary celebrations in Mdantsane in 2018.
After hearing from Hood on Monday, Malema took the stand on Wednesday and defended himself, saying after the owners of the stage where he is alleged to have fired the gun inspected their stage, they found that there was no damage to any of the property on stage.
“That stage where it is alleged I was shooting live ammunition from is called a dome and has a plastic cover on it. If you shoot from that stage, with a gun that is pointing up, it is bound to damage that particular structure. The people who own the stage came here and told you and this court that the inspection done by the police, and they also did the inspection, found that none of their properties were damaged. This is a clear demonstration that no live ammunition was shot from that podium,” Malema said.
He added that no lives were endangered at the time of the alleged incident.
“Equally, it has been demonstrated that no lives were endangered and therefore I did not have to take any precautionary measures to save lives because I was never in such a position.
“Where real live ammunition gets fired, human beings, even without looking at where the gun was fired, they go for cover,” he said.
Malema insisted that the State does not have a solid case against him and his bodyguard.
“No State case has been made here that demonstrates that I carried that kind of weapon you are talking about. My DNA is not found on that weapon. My house was never searched. My workplace was never searched looking for that weapon. I was never questioned about that weapon.
“When I was sitting here, I heard that they went to find the weapon in someone’s premises very far ... (I) don’t even know that address, very far from where I stay.
“I must come before this court and answer for weapons that cannot be brought anywhere close to my skin or to me,” said Malema.
The matter was adjourned for the day and is set to resume on Thursday.
The Star