Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, will face criminal prosecution after falsely accusing a school principal of rape. AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit has succeeded in convincing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) that Malema should be prosecuted for crimen injuria after branding Jaco Pieterse, former Principal of Bergview College in Matatiele, a serial child rapist.
With the support of the unit, Pieterse laid the criminal complaint at the Sophiatown Police Station in June last year. When a decision to prosecute Malema was not forthcoming, the unit made the representation to the NPA.
Similar criminal complaints were also lodged against Fikile Mbalula, Secretary-General of the ANC, and Fundile Gade, MEC for Education in the Eastern Cape, for making the same false allegation.
The complaint against Malema stems from statements he made on 6 April 2025 at the party’s Land Reclamation Day at the Sophiatown Extreme Park in Johannesburg. At this event, Malema publicly claimed that a school principal raped a seven-year-old girl and alleged that the principal was being treated differently from other suspects. Malema also suggested that the principal may have committed similar offences in the past.
The case involves a child who, according to her mother’s allegations, was raped at Bergview College in October 2024. Pieterse and the school caretaker – whom the unit also represents – became the targets of a vicious social media campaign in November of that year after the NPA...
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