CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A leftist South African politician who described U.S. President Donald Trump as a modern-day dictator was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday for firing a rifle at a political rally in 2018.
Julius Malema, who leads a populist opposition party, has been a divisive figure in South Africa for years and accused of stoking racial tensions with anti-white rhetoric. Supporters praise him as a man of the people who stands
up for the country's poor Black majority.
He has been a focus of U.S. government criticism and featured on a video played in a tense White House meeting last year between Trump and the South African president.
Malema recently referred to Trump as an “Adolf Hitler of (the) modern day.”
Here's a look at Malema's controversial track record:
Malema emerged as the outspoken president of the ruling African National Congress party's youth league from 2008-2012. His conduct regularly tested the patience of senior members of the party, including when he began publicly criticizing then-South African President Jacob Zuma, the leader of the ANC.
He had previously been a staunch supporter of Zuma, once saying “we are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma.”
In 2010, Malema swore at a BBC journalist, accused him of being a British “agent” and threw him out of a press conference in a move that was condemned by the ANC. A central part of Malema's politics has been to accuse the United States and the U.K. of an “imperialist” and racist attitude toward South Africa.
Following a series of controversial comments, his public criticism of neighboring Botswana's government as a puppet regime ultimately led to him being expelled from the ANC in 2012.
Malema formed a new party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, in 2013 as a far-left, anti-capitalist movement.
The EFF has called for radical changes in South Africa, including the expropriation of land belonging to white people to be redistributed to Blacks who were oppressed under the former apartheid system of racial segregation.
Some of Malema's comments as the “Commander in Chief” of the EFF have been criticized as stoking racial tensions in a multiracial country that managed to embrace reconciliation in the years after apartheid.
“We are not calling for the slaughter of white people — at least for now,” Malema said in one of many speeches to supporters criticizing South Africa's white minority.
He has also made disparaging remarks about South Africans who have Indian heritage.
Malema gained some international notoriety by reviving the apartheid-era chant “Kill the Boer,” which he chanted at rallies while he was the ANC youth leader and has also done with the EFF. Boer refers to a white farmer and the chant has been fiercely opposed by groups representing parts of South Africa's white minority as amounting to hate speech.
Malema's party — and the chant — have also been cited by Trump and his supporters, like South African-born Elon Musk, to make their baseless claim that there is a widespread campaign of violence against South Africa's white farmers.
Malema and the EFF were featured on a video reel that was played in the Oval Office during Trump's dramatic meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last year, when Trump confronted Ramaphosa over the issue.
The Trump administration's accusations that South Africa's Black-led government is pursuing an anti-white agenda has been central to a major diplomatic fallout between the countries.
While Malema and other EFF members serve as lawmakers in Parliament, their party has never held political power on a national level and received 10% of the vote in the last national election in 2024. The EFF is not part of the coalition government.
Malema and his EFF have also directed their disapproval at Ramaphosa and the ANC and have been thrown out of Parliament several times for interrupting proceedings.
In 2023, Malema and other EFF members wearing the party's uniform of red worker overalls stormed the stage during a speech by the South African president, leading to tussles with security officials.
Malema was convicted of firearm offenses in October, seven years after he fired a rifle in the air at a political rally.
A group representing South Africa's Afrikaner white minority brought an application pushing prosecutors to eventually take Malema to court.
He was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison but launched an appeal and was freed on bail pending the appeal. If the sentence is upheld, he would be disqualified from serving as a lawmaker for five years after completing his sentence.
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