AfriForum submits criminal charges against Julius Malema for land grab utterances

Civil rights organisation AfriForum submitted criminal charges against the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema this afternoon at the Brooklyn Police Station. This, after Malema yesterday encouraged his supporters at the EFF Congress in Bloemfontein to illegally occupy land countrywide.

The charge is based on the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act in terms of which it is illegal for a person to occupy land without the consent of the owner or person in charge of the land. According to AfriForum, Malema is making himself guilty of attempting, colluding and soliciting people to commit a crime. 

According to Nantes Kelder, Head of the AfriForum Investigation Unit, AfriForum will not sit back when people are spurred on to break the law. "Malema must realise that his land grab policy will not be executed without opposition. AfriForum will fight any land grab policy with everything in our power."

Kelder said Malema is romanticising criminal acts, while - in reality - it provokes conflict and opposition.

In response to the announcement by Malema that a fund is to be established to bail out people arrested for illegal land grabs, Kelder said AfriForum will also establish a fund to take a stand and act against land grabs.

Statement issued by Nantes Kelder, Head: Investigation Unit, AfriForum, December 17 2014

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