The EFF says it has instructed its lawyers to begin the process of challenging the Western Cape Equality Court ruling, which found Julius Malema guilty of hate speech.

In a statement released after Wednesday’s ruling, the EFF has labelled the ruling by Judge Mark Sher as a “grave distortion of history, philosophy, and the nature of political speech in a democratic society.”

The Court ruled that certain remarks made by Malema at the EFF Provincial People’s Assembly on 16 October 2022 “could reasonably be construed as demonstrating a clear intention to incite harm.”

READ: WC Equality Court finds Julius Malema guilty of hate speech

The Court relied on Section 10 of the Equality Act, acknowledging that freedom of expression is a core constitutional right and an “indispensable facilitator of democracy”. However, the Court held that this right is not absolute and does not protect speech that advocates hatred or incites harm.

The EFF says this conclusion is “fundamentally flawed and deliberately misreads” both the context and the meaning of the speech.

The party says Malema’s statements, including “You must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing,” and “Racism is violence and violence can only be ended by violence,” were not literal instructions to kill white people.

“This interpretation strips the speech of its political, historical, and ideological context, reducing a revolutionary critique to criminality.”

The EFF states that Section 16 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, including political expression, citing that the courts have previously affirmed this in cases such as the one against Malema for singing “Kill the Boer”.

“We note the Court’s ruling as an attack on the democratic space and the right to articulate revolutionary politics.”

Judge Sher held Malema and the EFF liable for the complainants’ (Dante van Wyk and the SAHRC’s) costs.

The SAHRC says it will now pursue a separate process regarding the relief sought by the main complainant. The Commission wants Malema to retract his statements and fork out R500 000 in damages.