Malema and EFF pay further R108 960 to AfriForum for legal costs

Julius Malema and the EFF this week made a second payment in two months of more than R100 000 to the civil rights organisation AfriForum to pay two of the five cost orders that AfriForum had obtained against them in the courts. This week’s payment (10 January) amounts to R108 960,79. The amount that AfriForum received from Malema and the EFF on 13 November 2018 amounted to R126 703,59.

Since March 2017, AfriForum has obtained five cost orders against Malema and the EFF in five different appearances in the Northern Gauteng High Court. It is estimated that the total amount due in terms of the cost orders is around R550 000. After the EFF and Malema paid in total more than R235 000, the amount owed stands at an estimated R315 000. According to AfriForum, the outstanding three cost orders will only be paid later, as two must still be taxed and one is subject to an appeal application brought by Malema and the EFF. Because of the two payments that AfriForum has already received from Malema and the EFF, AfriForum will not go ahead with selling at auction the EFF’s assets – which the sheriff has already seized – before the legal processes of the three outstanding cost orders have been finalised.

Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, welcomes the further payment by Malema and the EFF. “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 adds.

The five cost orders stem from the court case that AfriForum brought against Malema and the EFF last year to obtain an interdict to prevent them from inciting people to occupy land illegally. The Northern Gauteng High Court found in AfriForum’s favour on 7 March 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 12 September 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 18 February 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 14 November 2018 in AfriForum’s favour against Malema and the EFF in two separate cases in the Norther Gauteng High Court. The first order applies 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 means that the case will 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 13 November were to settle cost orders that had been issued on 12 September 2017 and 18 February 2018, respectively. Malema and the EFF are currently appealing the interdict that AfriForum obtained against them on 7 March 2017, while the two cost orders of 14 November 2018 must still be assessed.