Malema and Ndlozi back in the dock for cop assault trial

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema and Member of Parliament (MP) Mbuyiseni Ndlozi are expected back in the dock on Thursday.

The case against the duo will be heard in the Randburg Magistrates’ Court.

Malema and Ndlozi are charged with assaulting a police officer Lieutenant Colonel Johannes Jacobus Venter at the funeral of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at Fourways Memorial Park in April 2018.

The incident was caught on CCTV.

Malema and Ndlozi have pleaded not guilty to a charge of common assault, and claimed that Venter attempted to bar them from entering the cemetery to bid farewell to the struggle icon.

During the last court appearance, Venter, who is attached to the Presidential Unit took the witness stand with his motivation for opening the assault case against the pair being brought into question.

In his evidence-in-chief, Venter told the court he had been tasked with access control that day, and that the alleged assault was prompted by his refusal to allow Malema’s vehicle entry to the cemetery.

This was line with an instruction he had been given not to permit anyone other than the family or the president to drive in without permission, Venter said.

The state also relied on video footage to prove its assault case against Malema and Ndlozi when two contradictory versions of how this crucial evidence was handled by police emerged.

Video footage of the incident purports to show them pushing and shoving Venter after he refused their vehicle entry to the Fourways Memorial Park that day.

Meanwhile, Malema has claimed that billionaire businessman Johann Rupert and the Oppenheimer family are the faces of South Africa’s land criminals.

Hundreds of EFF members and supporters on Wednesday took part in a march outside properties owned by Rupert in Stellenbosch, Western Cape.

The march – dubbed by the Red Berets as “land day” – coincided with the arrival of Dutch colonial administrator and navigator Jan van Riebeeck in South Africa on 6 April 1652.

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