Economic Freedom Fighters(EFF) leader Julius Malema and his co-accused bodyguard, Adriaan Snyman, have pleaded not guilty to charges of illegal possession and use of a firearm.

The pair appeared in the East London Magistrates Court on Tuesday, where the first two witnesses have testified.

The incident happened at Mdantsane’s Sisa Dukashe Stadium in East London in July 2018 shortly after the EFF’s anniversary celebrations.

Malema faces charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, and three counts of contravening the Firearms Control Act.

Snyman faces one count of contravening the Firearms Control Act and failure to take reasonable precautions to avoid danger to a person’s property.

The charges stem from a video showing Malema allegedly firing what appeared to be an automatic assault rifle during the EFF’s fifth birthday celebrations.

At the moment, it appears Malema walked out onto the stage, fired a rifle several times, before handing the gun to another man, allegedly his co-accused Snyman.

But despite this, both say they are innocent.

The State called its first witness, retired visible policing unit commander Colonel Ngamlana Nkwali. Nkwali told the court he opened a docket after the station commander Brigadier Clive Nkopo showed him the video on 2 August 2018.

Nkwali, who commanded a team of police officers who oversaw safety and security at the event, said he never saw Malema firing the rifle on that day.

He added that none of his officers informed him of the incident.

Nkwali said he only observed fireworks behind the podium.

He said he was 150 metres from the podium where Malema had allegedly fired the rifle.

Nkwali said no major incidents were observed on the day of the event, except for an incident when excited spectators stormed the pitch and rushed to the podium while struggle songs were sung on stage.

He also revealed that police officers had picked up an empty cartridge after the event.

The second witness is the woman who allegedly found an empty cartridge on the stadium grounds following Monday morning.

She was part of a cleaning and maintenance team.

She’s told the court that when she found it, she was shocked as she had never seen a cartridge that large
In her testimony, she’s also confirmed the cartridge was empty.