Malema, EFF pay over R100K to AfriForum for legal costs

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Johannesburg - Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema and his party this past week made a second payment in two months of more than R100 000 to civil rights organisation AfriForum to pay two of the five cost orders AfriForum obtained against them in the courts. This week’s payment on January 10 amounted to R108 960.79. The payment AfriForum received from Malema and the EFF on November 13, 2018 amounted to R126 703,59, AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said on Sunday. Since March 2017, AfriForum had obtained five cost orders against Malema and the EFF in five different appearances in the North Gauteng High Court. It was estimated that the total amount due in terms of the cost orders was around R550 000. After the EFF and Malema paid in total more than R235 000, the amount owed stood at an estimated R315 000. The outstanding three cost orders would only be paid later, as two still had to be taxed and one was subject to an appeal application brought by Malema and the EFF, he said. Because of the two payments AfriForum had already received, AfriForum would not go ahead with selling at auction the EFF’s assets – which the sheriff had already seized – before the legal processes of the three outstanding cost orders had been finalised.

“AfriForum will use Malema and the EFF’s payments in our court battles to fight attempts to change the country’s Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation,” Kriel said.

The five cost orders stemmed from the court case AfriForum brought against Malema and the EFF to obtain an interdict to prevent them from inciting people to occupy land illegally. The North Gauteng High Court found in AfriForum’s favour on March 7, 2017 and granted the interdict with cost.

Malema and the EFF then brought an application to have the interdict set aside, which would have been heard on September 12, 2017. However, the court had to postpone the case after Malema and the EFF submitted their heads of argument in their own case too late.

The judge consequently granted a punitive cost order against Malema and the EFF. When the case resumed on February 18, 2018, Malema and the EFF’s legal representatives failed to appear and the case was settled in AfriForum’s favour and a further cost order issued against Malema and the EFF.

The other two cost orders were issued on November 14, 2018 in AfriForum’s favour against Malema and the EFF in two separate cases in the North Gauteng High Court. The first order applied to a case of contempt of court brought by AfriForum against Malema and the EFF, after Malema and the EFF continued to encourage land grabs despite a standing interdict that AfriForum had obtained to prohibit them from inciting people to occupy land.

Malema and the EFF’s legal team failed to submit their heads of argument in time, which meant that the case would have to be heard later. With this, the EFF and Malema incurred yet another cost order against them.

In the second case, the EFF and Malema attempted to obtain an urgent court order to prevent AfriForum from removing and selling the EFF’s property at auction to recover legal costs. The court ruled that Malema and the EFF’s case was not urgent and issued another cost order against Malema and the EFF.

The payments that Malema and the EFF made to AfriForum this week and on November 13 were to settle cost orders that had been issued on September 12, 2017 and February 18, 2018, respectively.

Malema and the EFF were currently appealing the interdict AfriForum obtained against them on March 7, 2017, while the two cost orders of November 14, 2018 still had to be assessed, Kriel said.

African News Agency (ANA)