Politics

Malema Wants the DA to Retract Incitement Allegations or He is Suing for R1 Million

Monday, July 19, 2021 at 5:05 PM by Lebogang Mashego

EFF leader Julius Malema is threatening to sue the Democratic Alliance if John Steenhuisen does not apologise for stating that Malema incited violence
The DA stated that the party would be laying charges against Malema for inciting violence during the violent protests last week
Malema's legal representation has stated that the DA singled out his tweet and took it out of context

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EFF leader Julius Malema wants the DA to retract allegations that he instigated violence amidst violent protests and wide-scale looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last week.

Malema also wants the DA's party leader John Steenhuisen to apologise for the comments against him and has threatened to sue the party for R1 million.

Julius Malema, EFF, John Steenhuisen, Democratic Alliance, incite violence — EFF leader Julius Malema says he did not incite violence and wants the DA's leader John Steenhuisen to apologise and retract comments he made. Image: Michele Spatari/AFP
Source: Getty Images

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DA MP Advocate Glynnis Breytenbach said last Tuesday that Malema's racially charged remarks regarding the Indian community had the potential to exacerbate racial tensions and were disturbing, according to IOL.

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Breytenbach further added that Malema's comments to join the protests after the South African National Defence Force deployed to help maintain law and order.

"He likened the deployment to a declaration war against civilians instead of an attempt to maintain law and order,” she said.

Malema's lawyers have written to the Democratic Alliance, requesting that the party's leader John Steenhuisen retract his claims that Malema incited violence, reports TimesLIVE.

According to Malema's lawyers, the accusations are vexatious, misdirected, frivolous, and false and were created to inflict political revenge on Malema and his reputation, as well as indirectly on the EFF.

In a letter written by his lawyers on 17 July, his legal representation stated that the DA took his tweet out of context.

The letter further stated that Malema has never encouraged any illegal behaviour, including looting, and the DA singled out a tweet while ignoring a series of other tweets that put what Malema was saying in context.

Jacob Zuma's arms deal corruption trial to resume on Monday in PMB High Court

In other political news, Briefly News reported that On Monday morning, former president Jacob Zuma's corruption trial will resume in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Zuma is accused of 16 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering in connection with the 1999 arms deal, reports EWN.

Zuma's legal representation is expected to ask the Pietermaritzburg High Court to postpone his case by a week. According to Zuma's lawyer, Bethuel Thusini, the former president would like to testify in person about why he should be absolved of corruption accusations without going to trial.

His arms deal trial began in May but has gone through multiple postponements and delays with Zuma's legal team tirelessly fighting to have the charges against him dropped.