Malema headed for another legal fight with AfriForum, over rape comments

The EFF has hit back at AfriForum, which is sponsoring fresh criminal charges against its leader, Julius Malema over a comment he made against a school principal following an alleged rape incident at his school in the Eastern Cape.

AfriForum’s private prosecution unit this week announced that the NPA had agreed to take up the case against the leader of the Red Berets Brigade as well as the same charges against ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.

The charges against Mbalula and Malema relate to comments they directed at former principal Jaco Pieterse, who laid criminal charges against the duo, and is fully supported by AfroForum.

The EFF has reacted, saying the move by AfriForum confirms its long-held view that the NGO is a racist entity hellbent on defending Afrikaners by all means necessary.

The roots of the conflict

According to the EFF, its comments on Pieterse stand after he refused to voluntarily allow police to take his DNA sample during the time of the rape incident that happened at his school.

“The background of this case stems from October 2024 when the seven-year-old ‘CweCwe’ rape matter was reported to have occurred at her school. As part of that investigation, the principal of the school where she was a learner refused to voluntarily provide his DNA sample as requested by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in their child rape investigation,” reads a statement by the EFF.

“The school principal was one of three people who SAPS requested to voluntarily provide their DNA sample as a process of elimination in its child rape investigation. The school principal was the only one who refused to cooperate with the SAPS and
Instead, he accepted the services of the white supremacist group, AfriForum, which went on its usual mission to protect the ‘rights’ of a white man over the human rights of an African child.

“As a result, President Malema spoke as a political leader responding, in real time, to a case that had already generated public outrage, noting this refusal by the principal. His remarks were a political statement of outrage on behalf of a child and a grieving family, not a legal pronouncement, and they must be understood in that context, as a political statement at a political event in defence of an unspeakable crime against a child.”

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The NPA also caught stray bullets with EFF accusing the prosecuting authority of being captured by “the racist reincarnation of the Boeremag in the form of AfriForum”, which they say is part of a vindictive ideological agenda by right-wingers.

Fair political commentary

The EFF believes that Malema’s comments remain fair political commentary because it was a matter of fact that Pieterse was the school principal, and that the minor was in his care as a school principal.

They said:

“It speaks directly to the fact that AfriForum’s white supremacist positioning in South Africa has no bounds, even when it comes to the rape investigation involving an African child.”

“Why, in an investigation into a reported rape of a seven-year-old child, did a school principal decline to voluntarily provide a DNA sample as part of an SAPS investigation elimination process? An adult’s comfort or reputation must never be placed above a child’s right, under our Constitution and the Children’s Act, to have their allegations properly and thoroughly investigated.”

The EFF insists that it will not be bullied by AfriForum, even in the face of another imminent criminal trial.

The lobby group has one up against Malema, who is fighting to have a gun-related criminal conviction overturned in a separate criminal matter that was championed by AfriForum.

It was also the AfroForum that had dragged Malema to court over the singing of struggle chant “kill the boer”, in which case Malema emerged a victor with the apex court in the land finding that there is no hate speech contained in the song.

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“AfriForum’s relentless political prosecution against the President of the EFF has reached an unprecedented low in weaponising the justice system in a child rape investigation by unseeing the rights of a 7-year old African girl child for the ‘rights’ of an adult white man who is a school principal.

“The EFF, therefore, makes no apology for protecting and pursuing the human rights of a child over that of an adult. This case is not just against the CIC, it is against the EFF, and more importantly, it is against the prioritisation of the protection and justice of children in a country that has unprecedented crimes against children.”