Malema is set to learn his fate on Friday in the East London Magistrate’s Court as sentencing looms. This follows his conviction last year for the unlawful discharge of a firearm during a 2018 party rally. Breakfast says the EFF will face serious political implications should its leader be sent to prison.

“What has tended to happen is that the ideological framing that holds the discourse of the party together is Marxism and Leninism. There are two subsets there. One is Vanguardism. Two is the notion of democratic centralism. So the party has tended to do what I call political substitutions. Decision-making has tended to revolve around the personality of Julius Malema. If he loses this appeal, it will have a particular meaning in terms of the strategic direction of the party,” he said.

–SABC–