Herein is a statement by the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) – Occupied Azania Chairman Tafarie Mugeri directed to all anti-colonial forces within and beyond the colonial borders of South Africa. WE STAND WITH JULIUS MALEMA AGAINST AFRIFORUM AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN NEO-COLONIAL COURTS.
On April 15, 2026, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema was condemned to prison with a 5 years direct imprisonment sentence by a judge, Twanet Olivier, at the KuGompo City regional court, a verdict that Malema immediately appealed. This allowed him to remain outside of prison pending a hearing with the high court. This custodial sentencing came after a conviction for a video recorded in a 2018 incident where Malema grabbed a rifle from his bodyguard and fired a shot in the air, perhaps to symbolize his “radicalism” or to excite the crowd.
According to the South African gun law, “discharging a firearm or airgun in a public space or built-up area is a criminal offense.” However, it should be known that law is nothing but the opinion of the ruling class—and that’s the white bourgeoisie of South Africa. This legal power of theirs is why they allow themselves large hectares of land, out of greed and without any use of it. They can own and fence the land because, according to the South African constitution, “no one may be deprived of property…and no law may permit arbitrary deprivation of property.”
Although this may sound like a sensible law when read without knowledge of its intent, it is in order to prevent us from taking back our land from those who took it through the barrel of the gun.
Centrality of the land question
The land question is key in terms of Malema’s case and his sentencing by the white judge. It is important in particular because the case was filed by an organization of colonizers called AfriForum (Afrikaner Forum). This organization explicitly fights for the maintenance of colonialism and the slave-master relations between Africans and the settler Europeans. AfriForum believes that white people are victims of black people’s desire to get back what belongs to us. They claim a white genocide, and continue to suggest that no attempt should be made to tamper with their place and material interests in the South African settler colony.
Over the years, AfriForum has filed legal cases against Malema for an array of matters, such as the singing of an anti-colonial song, to physical altercations with white people. Previously, they have lost cases against Malema, but they never relented, until now.
They have finally succeeded in getting a conviction in this case. This conviction and sentencing take place at a moment when the settler community of South Africa has mobilized forces as far as the United States. With knowledge of this colonial agenda, our Party refuses to unite with settler colonizers and imperialism against targets that they perceive to be a threat to their ill-gotten wealth.
This is similar to what we said regarding Robert Mugabe when he was the number one enemy head of state in Africa for Britain and the US. Our position was this: we stand with the people against Mugabe, but we stand with Mugabe against imperialism. It is in the same spirit that we say, “we stand with the people against Malema, but we stand with Malema against imperialism.”
Malema is a politician with petty bourgeois interests and aspirations. As far as the class struggle is concerned, he is not on the side of the masses of African workers—a lot of whom are his supporters. This is why he vacillates from supporting African migrant laborers to dismissing them as outsiders and foreigners. If he were rooted within the masses, he wouldn’t change his tone whenever he meets settlers by saying they should “share the land,” and that they should fear an “unled” revolution rather than one led by the EFF. It is safe to say that Malema is more committed to saving the settler colony of South Africa than he is to the course of liberating the entire African Nation.
Unlike Malema and the EFF, we in the APSP do not believe in the South African constitution and the laws of the country. This is why it is easier for us to defend him against this legal and political attack without giving prominence to our differences with him and his politics. We are clear that his arrest has nothing to do with justice, but is meted out at anyone who dares speak and acts in a way that is threatening to the hegemony and material interests of white power in South Africa and internationally. The ruling class has long resolved that Malema is a “real” threat to their agenda for a more prominent settler colony. Therefore, why should we support the state against Malema, whereas the real enemy’s power rests with the state itself?
A mistake that many of the anti-colonial forces of the 20th century made was to confuse government with the State. They assumed that just because they were voted into government, they would automatically be in control of the State. However, democracy is merely a form of the State, the same way Apartheid was a form of the State. When the ANC took office in 1994, they merely inherited the administration of the settler colonial state—they neither transformed nor destroyed it. As we speak, Africans are still at the mercy of the dictatorship of the colonial white bourgeoisie.
It’s evident that bourgeois democracy is also a form of dictatorship. This case vindicates Chairman Omali Yeshitela’s bold declaration that “dictatorship is the rule without regard for law.” This is a dictatorship that is generally hidden from white people. This explains why you will never hear reports of a white person having been harassed or shot by the police in South Africa, or Africa at large. At the same time, the dictatorship is naked to black people, no matter how much it tries to hide itself; 34 African mine workers were gunned down on TV in 2012, and life continued as normal. The year before that, the police killed Adries Tatane, a teacher protesting for service delivery in Ficksburg.
When Chairman Omali Yeshitela was raided and indicted by the FBI with the threat of a 15-year prison sentence in 2022, we called for solidarity from African organizations in particular. African people learned from the Uhuru 3 case that when imperialism attacks a prominent organization they consider to be a threat, they are effectively attacking the African revolution as a whole. It matters not to us right now that the EFF, or any other organization in South Africa, failed to come out in defence of our Party and leadership. We will defend them for as long as they are positioned in contention with our colonial enemies, who have an interest in subjugating the entire African Nation.
There is a precedent in our Party in terms of why we should defend Julius Malema from the settler colonial courts of South Africa. As has already been mentioned, we supported Mugabe against US and British imperialism. We also defended Jacob Zuma when he was jailed in a factional battle to eliminate the pro-East neo-colonial forces within the ANC to make way for those favored by the South African oligarchy. We also stand with the ANC government on its case against Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. This is despite the ANC being a neo-colonial government that has failed to take back land from our colonizers for more than 30 years now.
Basically, we don’t have to agree with Julius Malema on anything, but his sentencing is a calculated attack on all black people. In the interest of the struggle against colonialism, we are forced to defend Malema against the conviction and sentencing, as we continue to call on all organizations to unite with the African working class in our struggle for the total liberation and unification of Africa.
Izwe lethu! IAfrika!
Touch one! Touch all!
