The ANC plans on laying criminal charges against Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema.
This was after Malema told Al Jazeera that his party would “remove this government through the barrel of a gun”.
“His utterances are treasonable and constitutes a violation of the IEC charter which was signed by all political parties … committing them to a free and fair election,” ANC national spokesman Zizi Kodwa said.
“We would expect the state to act against this conduct. The state must investigate treason charges against him.”
During an episode of Talk To Al Jazeera last week, Malema told Jonah Hull that if the ruling ANC continued to respond violently to peaceful protests, “we will run out of patience very soon and we will remove this government through the barrel of a gun”.
Malema was asked what this meant and if he was “literally” saying people should take up arms against the government.
Malema responded: “Yeah, literally. I mean it literally. We are not scared. We are not going to have a government that disrespects us.”