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File: Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema appears in court.
Legal and Constitutional experts say Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema can still serve as a Member of Parliament until all his legal options have been exhausted.
This follows the 5 year jail term handed to Malema by the KuGompo City Magistrates’ Court last Thursday, which raised questions on his eligibility to be an MP.
The case relates to the unlawful discharge of a firearm at an EFF rally at the Siza Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane, in the Eastern Cape, in 2018.
Constitutional Law scholar from Stellenbosch University, Dr Tanveer Jeewa, says Malema can still serve as an MP, as he is entitled to exhaust all his legal options.
“You can still be a Member of Parliament until that imprisonment, (until) that sentence is confirmed by the last court that you have appealed it to. So, even if we are looking at potentially 2030 or even 2032, while the appealing is running, Julius Malema is not disqualified from being an MP. He can still sit and lead from Parliament in this case,” says Jeewa.
On the prospects of winning his leave to appeal both the conviction and the sentence, legal expert Elton Hart says the higher courts will listen to the arguments without trying to interfere in the work of lower courts.
“Appeal courts have this rule of practice that they don’t like to interfere with sentences that was given by the trial courts and this was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeal because they feel that the trial courts have the better understanding of the facts of the case looking at the demeanour of the witnesses and also the evidence that was produced at the court. So, they can interfere, but they don’t like to interfere in those sentences, and I am not saying that the appeals court cannot change the verdict. They can change it, especially looking at ‘was there a misdirection?’”
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