Malema tears into ‘lazy’ NPA after his court appearance

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema on Thursday accused the prosecutors in his assault case of being “incompetent and lazy”.

Addressing his supporters gathered outside the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, Malema accused senior prosecutor Yusuf Baba of taking too long to wrap up the 2018 assault case.

“We’ve been coming to listen to a case of common assault case for four years. How can a common assault case take four years?

“We’re still coming here because we’ve got an incompetent NPA. The prosecutor here called Baba has taken this case as a personal matter, he wants to appear on TV in the name of the EFF… there is nothing he is doing except being a lazy, he’s a lazy thinker and doesn’t know his job.”

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The leader of the red berets and EFF member Mbuyiseni Ndlozi were charged with assault after an altercation with a police officer at the funeral of struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at Fourways Memorial Park in 2018.

They are accused of assaulting Lieutenant Colonel Johannes Jacobus Venter, attached to the Presidential Unit. The incident was caught on CCTV.

Malema and Ndlozi have pleaded not guilty, and claimed that Venter attempted to bar them from entering the cemetery to bid farewell to Madikizela-Mandela.

The EFF leader told supporters that all they did was defend themselves against Venter.

“We never attacked anyone… we defended ourselves against a white Afrikaaner. We put white supremacists at their rightful place. We are not our grandfathers and grandmothers and are not scared of whites.”

The trial was postponed to 6 May due to the absence of a state witness who had been scheduled to testify.

In his evidence-in-chief during the previous appearance, 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.

Video footage of the incident purports to show the duo pushing and shoving Venter after he refused their vehicle entry.

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