AfriForum has filed an application for contempt of court against the EFF and the party’s leader, Julius Malema, with the High Court in Pretoria. The application was issued by the court on Friday. The application follows renewed calls by the EFF and Malema for illegal occupation of land, despite a court order obtained by AfriForum in 2017 prohibiting them from making such calls.
In its latest court application, the civil rights organisation requests the court that Malema and the EFF be found guilty of contempt of court, and that the EFF be fined R500 000 and Malema be sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, or another appropriate sanction be imposed.
During a public EFF lecture held on 23 July of this year at the University of Limpopo in Polokwane, Malema referred, among other things, to young people who would one day enter and occupy a farm in Stellenbosch.
In another incident, on 6 April 2025, the EFF called on people to occupy land in a post on the party’s official X account. According to the post, “our people must go get the land” and “occupy everywhere where they need to farm and build houses.”
AfriForum’s contempt of court application follows a court order issued in its favour on 7 March 2017 and served on the EFF and Malema. This order prohibits the EFF and Malema from inciting, instigating, commanding, or procuring any individual to trespass or enter any land without the required permission of the owner or lawful occupant.
Since then, the EFF and Malema have made several unsuccessful attempts to have the order set aside. Costs orders were awarded in AfriForum’s favour in the resulting judgments.
The party and its leader ultimately approached the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal. The application to the Constitutional Court was dismissed in March 2023, after which the application to the Supreme Court of Appeal also failed in June of that year.
A second attempt to have the order set aside by the Constitutional Court was also dismissed in September 2023.
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Following this, the EFF acknowledged in an official media statement that the matter “which has been before the courts has now reached finality.”
According to Kallie Kriel, AfriForum’s CEO, a court order is not a recommendation that can be obeyed as you see fit.
Kriel explains: “The EFF and Malema know exactly what the court order stipulates and have spent years unsuccessfully trying to overturn it. They are now wilfully ignoring the order, and AfriForum will ensure that they face the consequences of their actions.”
He concludes: “This case is about the rule of law. AfriForum pursued this matter through the courts precisely because we believe that the rule of law applies to everyone. It cannot be that ordinary citizens are bound by court orders, while certain political parties and political leaders regard themselves as above the law and can openly disregard court orders without consequence.
“AfriForum will continue to fight for equality before the law by, among other things, using legal action to ensure that those who break the law with impunity are held accountable.”
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