EFF Leader Julius Malema Target Patriotic Journalists at Luthuli House Rally — Editors Demand Action

Veteran broadcast journalist Thandeka Mokoena gripped her press badge outside Luthuli House on Wednesday morning as Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema pointed directly at her camera crew and demanded they stop filming his address to supporters. She kept rolling. Within minutes, two EFF marshals moved toward her equipment, and Malema’s raised voice drew jeers from the crowd gathered on Plein Street, Cape Town, putting the entire encounter on video that circulated within hours.

Malema allegedly singled out at least three accredited journalists during that gathering, instructing marshals to block their sightlines and confiscate memory cards from two photographers. Witnesses told reporters on the ground that the EFF leader labelled certain members of the press corps “regime operatives” and warned them they would “face consequences” for publishing footage he considered unflattering to the party ahead of next month’s municipal by-elections.

The South African National Editors Forum condemned the conduct in a sharply worded statement on Thursday, calling on Parliament’s Ethics Committee to investigate whether Malema violated the Constitution’s Section 16 press freedom guarantee. Democratic Alliance spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube confirmed her party submitted a formal complaint to the Electoral Commission, urging investigators to treat the marshals’ physical interference as an obstruction of media duty.

This confrontation did not emerge from nowhere. EFF members have clashed with journalists at multiple rallies since 2019, when footage was confiscated from a television crew covering internal disciplinary hearings at the party’s Braamfontein headquarters. Media Monitoring Africa documented eleven separate incidents of EFF-linked intimidation between January 2022 and March 2025, noting a sharp escalation whenever polling dates drew near.

What stays with those present on Wednesday is a small, telling moment: a young freelance photographer, notebook tucked under her arm and hands visibly trembling, quietly formatted her own memory card before any marshal reached her — erasing images she had spent two hours capturing because she feared the alternative. Her editor later discovered the wiped card and wept at his desk.

No arrest warrant exists for anyone involved, the Electoral Commission has yet to schedule a hearing, and Malema has not responded publicly to the editors’ demand. South Africa’s courts have consistently upheld press freedom as foundational to accountability — but who protects the journalist standing alone when the microphone gets grabbed?

https://x.com/i/status/2119444834750787704

Collabo002 feedback-opera-news-app@opera.com