South Africa’s Malema Loses Bid to Overturn Apartheid-Era Law

(Bloomberg) -- A South African high court dismissed an application by Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, challenging the constitutionality of one of the last-remaining pieces of apartheid-era law.

Malema, 38, brought the case after being charged under the Riotous Assemblies Act for urging his party's supporters to seize vacant land. He and the EFF, the country's second-largest opposition party, challenged the law saying it was passed during white-minority rule to oppress black people, and now plan to take the argument to the Constitutional Court, the highest legal authority.

The election of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress effectively ended apartheid in 1994, nearly four decades after the Act took effect. The legislation prohibits gatherings in open-air public places if the Minister of Justice considers they could endanger the public peace and was used to try prosecute Mandela, and other anti-apartheid icons including Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amogelang Mbatha in Johannesburg at ambatha@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Gordon Bell, Alastair Reed

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