Activists protest in New York City following EFF leader's sentencing.
Image: Partisan Defense Committee
A small protest dubbed "Hands Off Malema" took place in New York City on Sunday, drawing together activists linked to the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC), the Spartacist League, and the Internationalist Group.
The East London Magistrate's Court sentenced EFF leader Julius Malema to an effective five-year direct prison term after finding him guilty on multiple firearm-related charges linked to a 2018 Mdantsane rally.
His legal team was granted leave to appeal the sentence, meaning he has not been immediately imprisoned while the matter continues through the courts.
The protest took place outside the South African Consulate-General in Manhattan, a common site used for solidarity demonstrations targeting the country's political issues.
Protectors claimed that US President Trump had a hand in the sentencing.
"Malema has been sentenced to five years in prison on bogus charges. This conviction was mandated by Trump. All workers and leftists must fight this outrage," the organisations said.
Trump has repeatedly alleged that white farmers in the country are facing what he has described as a "genocide" claims widely disputed by South African authorities and independent experts.
This resulted in his opening of a refugee programme solely for white South Africans.
Controversial EFF leader at centre of global protest and political backlash.
Image: Partisan Defense Committee
During his address in Turning Point USA rally on Friday, he said: "They kill people if they're white. If you're a white person in South Africa, they kill white farmers. Terrible, terrible. We can't let it go on."
The party has also drawn global attention for Malema's repeated singing of the struggle song "Kill the Boer," a chant rooted in anti-apartheid history.
The song has triggered international backlash, including criticism from high-profile figures such as Elon Musk, who has publicly accused South African political rhetoric of being dangerous and inflammatory.
In the 'Big Apple', Mayor Zohran Mamdani is widely associated with a younger wave of United States lawmakers aligned with democratic socialist ideas, pushing policies centred on wealth redistribution, stronger public services and greater tenant protections.
Although he operates in a very different political environment, his approach is often placed alongside movements like the EFF in wider international debates about the renewed rise of left-wing economic politics and growing support for more interventionist state-led reforms.
In South Africa there were similar but considerably larger protests in support of the politician.
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