Malema Bags Five-Year Jail Term, Files Appeal, Retains Parliamentary Seat

The leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema, has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for unlawful possession of a firearm and discharging it in public, in a ruling that has cast uncertainty over his political future.

Malema, 45, was convicted on five counts, including reckless endangerment, following a trial in KuGompo City, formerly known as East London.

He told the court during proceedings that the shots were fired in celebration.

Despite the sentence, the outspoken opposition figure will not head to prison immediately, having been granted leave to appeal against the ruling.

His legal team has indicated plans to challenge both the conviction and the sentence.

A legal expert, Ulrich Roux, explained that Malema would first need permission from the Eastern Cape High Court to contest the conviction.

If granted, the case could proceed through multiple judicial stages, potentially reaching the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

“If it goes all the way to the Constitutional Court, we will most likely get a final order within four to five years,” Roux was quoted as saying.

Under South African law, a person sentenced to more than 12 months in prison without the option of a fine is disqualified from serving as a Member of Parliament.

However, such a sentence only takes effect after all appeals have been exhausted.

This means Malema, who leads the radical opposition party known for its red berets and pro-working-class rhetoric, can continue to serve in parliament and participate in political activities, including upcoming local elections.

Malema, a fierce critic of Western influence and advocate for land nationalisation, has built a strong following among disenchanted youths, while also drawing criticism across political and social divides.

Over the years, he has faced multiple hate speech convictions and was reportedly denied entry into the United Kingdom twice within the past year.

Political analyst Sandile Swana said the lengthy appeal process could allow Malema to remain politically relevant for years, including the possibility of contesting the 2029 general elections.

He also noted that even in the event of imprisonment and subsequent disqualification, the EFF leader could stage a comeback, citing the example of former President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021, was barred from holding parliamentary office but later founded a new political platform, uMkhonto weSizwe, which secured a third-place finish in the 2024 elections, surpassing the EFF.

Another analyst, Khanyi Magubane, suggested that the conviction could paradoxically boost Malema’s political fortunes.

“I believe this will position the EFF and Malema well. It’s actually going to have unintended consequences because he will play on public sympathy and use this opportunity to continue standing his ground,” she said.

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2026 UTME: JAMB Calls For Calm As Exam Disruptions Persist.

As the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise enters day 2, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has assured candidates whose examinations were disrupted that they would be rescheduled to write them at a later date.

Public Communication Advisor of JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin stated this during the The Senate Committee on Tertiary Education monitoring of the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Abuja on Friday.

Benjamin was responding to questions raised by disgruntled parents and candidates whose examinations were disrupted at the Good Success Computer Based Test (CBT) Center, Utako

On his part, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Senator Mohammed Dandutse agreed that JAMB and CBT centers were faced with a lot of challenges but promised
to resolve them.

“From what we have seen, we have seen progress and we have seen a lot of challenges faced by the centres.

“And this one is not only in Abuja, it’s throughout the country. As a matter of fact, we sincerely appreciate what we have seen so far. Because the other issue is a technical issue, it happened yesterday and it also happened today, which was explained by the supervisor. But the truth of the matter, it has been a constraint to JAMB because these issues need to be addressed even before the exam takes place.

“As senators who are solely responsible for oversight and investigating the matters arising to this JAMB exam, I think we are going to look into how best JAMB will improve in most of the activities.

“We have already instructed them and told them to, as a matter of urgency, to take a definitive action so that the student will write the exam. And at the same time, we are going to review all the activities in JAMB so that we can make sure that these things do not happened again.

“So definitely we are going to address it and we are going to make sure that all the CBT centers are well functional and efficient. Because there is no moral justification for somebody to come from far away and will be living in trauma without writing the exam”, he said.

JAMB Spokesperson however maintained that the glitches were expected:

“Naturally, you should have one or two challenges here and there. It is not unusual and I don’t think there is anybody that will condone the exam using one thousand centers and then you expect that you won’t have any problem. But the most important thing is that if this problem do occur, are you prepared to handle them? And that is what we have just done there.

“That all those candidates will be rescheduled to another date, another center where they will sit the examination. It is natural to have a problem.

“As Nigerians, as citizens, that at least they are paying us with public funds, we are using public funds, they will expect 100%. But we know as operators that it is not easy, it is not possible for you to give 100%.

“But by the time you score 90%, at least you should have a term of. But for the candidate that have gone there, used the whole hours and sat inside the hall and then they didn’t take the exam, it is expected that they should vent their frustration. But it is natural”, he said.

Benjamin however, reassured that the Board would do the needful:

“We are assuring all Nigerians that every candidate who have registered for this exam will be given the opportunity to sit this exam. If your center fails today, you will be rescheduled again to take the exam. For any reason, even when you are rescheduled, and for any reason again, you are unable to sit the examination, you will be rescheduled again.

“That is why when we finish the exam, we have what we call the mop-up. The mop-up is to ensure that candidates whose center failed and they could not take the exam, we mop them up, give them a particular date for them to sit the examination. Because it’s a contract we have entered with them, they must sit the examination.

“But we’ll continue to do our best to ensure that we have minimal failure of these centers. And that is what we are doing. Out of 957 that we are using for this examination, I’m not sure we’ve had up to 10 or 8 centers that have failed”, he added.