24 May 2026
The South African court has sentenced Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema to five years imprisonment for the illegal possession and firing of a gun during a rally in East London, Eastern Cape in 2018. Malema is not going to jail yet, and he has been granted the right to appeal his conviction and sentence, but it is essential to mobilise now and demand: Hands off Malema! Drop all the charges!
During the recent visit to the US White House by South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, Donald Trump called for Malema to be imprisoned, a call that was taken up by the racist Afriforum. South Africa’s government acquiesced to Washington’s demand without the US government playing a direct role. It is important to recognise that Malema is being persecuted by the ANC government, which makes the laws implemented by the police, courts and prisons in South Africa, confirming the collusive connection between the imperialists and their underlings in the neocolonial countries. The bourgeois nationalist EFF, which models itself on the apartheid-era ANC and its Freedom Charter, does not have the programmatic basis or class orientation to provide an alternative, despite its often-radical critique of the government. Opposition to imperialism abroad means class struggle at home!
The bourgeoisie of neocolonial countries like South Africa, as Leon Trotsky taught, is weak, dependent and incapable of winning the fight for national liberation. This demands an independent mobilisation of the working class to fight for the overthrow of imperialism and extend the struggle for permanent revolution internationally.
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