Talk to my lawyer, says Malema

2009-07-10 13:12

Johannesburg - ANC Youth president Julius Malema's hate speech case in the Equality Court was postponed on Friday so that he could consider applying to have it thrown out of court.

His lawyer Tumi Mokwena asked Magistrate Colleen Collis for the postponement so that he could review the evidence and consider whether to apply for absolution.

Speaking on the sidelines of the case, Mokwena explained that absolution was when someone applied to dismiss a claim without leading evidence.

This was done when the respondent considered a case so weak that it was not worth responding to.

The court awarded one-and-a-half hours of cost to the complainant to make up for the rest of the day that the case was meant to be heard.

The small court in Johannesburg was packed with reporters and ANCYL supporters who had expected to hear Malema defending himself on a complaint of hate speech, discrimination and harassment.

The complaint, laid by the Sonke Gender Justice Network, related to comments Malema made about President Jacob Zuma's rape accuser. In response to a question at an address at the Cape Peninsula Technikon in January, Malema said: "Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money. In the morning, that lady requested breakfast and taxi money."

Zuma was acquitted of the rape charge after a trial in 2006 and the woman subsequently left the country.

The network laid the complaint with the Equality Court and was demanding a public apology at a media conference, a retraction, a promise that Malema would not do it again, and a damages award of R50,000 to a shelter for abused women.

On Friday, people squeezed through the door and sat on the floor or moulded themselves to the wall to fit into the courtroom, while others waited in the passage outside for someone to leave to create space.

Malema sat with Mokwena and when Sapa approached him for comment, he produced a bumper sticker line "talk to my lawyer", and jerked his thumb at Mokwena. League spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said he would make a statement outside the court.

The matter was postponed to August 31.

- SAPA