East Lon­don roads have been cor­doned off, with hun­dreds of EFF sup­port­ers from across the coun­try shuttled to the city yesterday, ahead of Julius Malema’s sen­ten­cing pro­ceed­ings in the Regional Court.

Malema has been found guilty of charges related to the pub­lic dis­charge of a fire­arm.

According to the Daily Dispatch, pro­vin­cial EFF sec­ret­ary Simthem­bile Madikizela said the party had exten­ded invit­a­tions to 500 people from all over the coun­try to attend the case.

The party has dubbed the case a ‘witch hunt'.

Malema is due back in court today for pre-sen­tence pro­ceed­ings after he was con­victed of unlaw­ful pos­ses­sion of a fire­arm, unlaw­ful pos­ses­sion of ammuni­tion, dis­char­ging a fire­arm in a pub­lic place and reck­less endan­ger­ment.

This is related to his fir­ing a fire­arm dur­ing the party’s fifth birth­day cel­eb­ra­tion in Mdant­sane in 2018.

Should Malema be sen­tenced to more than a year’s impris­on­ment without the option of a fine, he would be removed as an MP.

Lawson Nai­doo the executive secretary of the Coun­cil for the Advance­ment of the SA Con­sti­tu­tion, said Malema was play­ing the ‘vic­tim card’.

‘One of the factors the court will take into account in determ­in­ing the appro­pri­ate sen­tence would be the extent to which the offender has shown any remorse,’ Naidoo said.

‘Given Mr Malema’s con­stant politi­cisa­tion of the case and maim­ing the author­ity of the court and the magis­trate, these factors are unlikely to sit well with the court. Malema must accept the fact that in SA we oper­ate under the rule of law,’ he said.

Shortly after his con­vic­tion in Octo­ber, Malema said he would appeal against both the con­vic­tion and the sen­tence as far as the Con­sti­tu­tional Court.

Full Daily Dispatch report