By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Western Cape High Court has granted EFF leader Julius Malema’s urgent bid to stay Parliament’s order that he apologise for using a Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interview to ask Judge Elias Matojane for defamation order he gave against his party.
Acting judge Nolundi Nyati on Monday ordered that the sanction imposed on Malema by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests – and endorsed by a majority of MPs in a National Assembly vote in December last year – be suspended.
In his affidavit, Malema argued that certain individuals and organisations, who disagreed with his line of questioning, sought to censure him for his conduct.
These individuals could not do so before the JSC because it was common cause that the JSC itself decided to take no action against him for “these seemingly improper questions”, he said.
Nyati’s ruling, for which she has yet to provide reasons, has however stopped that from happening. She has further interdicted National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and parliamentary ethics authorities from “implementing the sanction contained in the report of the Ethics Committee” pending the outcome of Malema’s challenge to that report.
She also dismissed Malema’s application as not being urgent – and argued that he had known about the sanction against him for months.
In 2019, Judge Matojane ordered the EFF to pay former finance minister Trevor Manuel half a million rand in damages after the EFF claimed nepotism in the appointment of SA Revenue Services commissioner, Edward Kieswetter.
Then in 2021, when Judge Matojane applied for a position at the Appeals Court, Malema – a JSC commissioner – questioned Judge Matojane’s judgment during his interview.
Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests then found Malema should not have used the JSC as a “platform for his personal interests” and recommended that he apologise to Judge Matojane and the JSC.
The committee found that Malema had “engaged in a matter that concerned him and his political party directly. The matter was before a court of law”.
It recommended that its report be adopted by the National Assembly for the sanction to take effect.
Nyati has ordered Parliament to pay Malema’s legal costs. The ruling means that Malema’s continued presence on the JSC, which will interview candidates for vacancies at the Constitutional Court, remains reasonably assured.
Meanwhile Malema is back in court and he faces charges related to discharging a firearm in public.
The East London Magistrate’s Court has postponed the case against Malema to Tuesday.
The reason for the postponement is due to the former prosecutor resigning last week.
CIC @Julius_S_Malema appearing at the East London Magistrates Court https://t.co/E4qnmCmRAH
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) February 28, 2022
He was caught on camera apparently firing an assault rifle at his party’s fifth birthday celebrations at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdansane in 2018.
Malema faces charges of illegal possession of firearms, contravention of the Firearms Control Act, the illegal possession of ammunition and reckless endangerment to persons or property.