A leftist politician in South Africa who became the subject of President Trump’s attacks on the country was convicted on Wednesday of gun charges, a month after a separate court found him guilty of hate speech.
During an Oval Office meeting with South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, Mr. Trump openly accused the leftist politician, Julius Malema, of fomenting violence against white South Africans. Mr. Trump played a video montage of Mr. Malema leading chants of “Kill the Boer,” or kill the white farmers, a protest song against the violent repression of the country’s Black majority during apartheid.
Although South African officials have not formally denounced the politician or the song, Mr. Malema has said that his current legal challenges are a result of pressure from Washington after the meeting in the Oval Office.
In a statement, Mr. Malema’s party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, attributed the verdict to a political climate in which the South African judiciary “is influenced by imperialist and right-wing agendas,” including that of “the racist right-wing Donald Trump.”
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority dismissed the allegations of foreign influence, saying that the verdict reaffirms its “commitment to upholding the rule of the law” and the administration of justice “without fear or favor.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that white South Africans are subject to mass murder in South Africa. At the White House, Mr. Ramaphosa dismissed Mr. Malema as a member of “a small minority party” and emphasized that his statements were not government policy. But, he added, South Africa “allows people to express themselves.”
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