JOHANNESBURG, April 16 (Reuters) - Julius Malema, a polarizing figure in South African politics, faces an uncertain political future after being sentenced to five years prison on Thursday following his conviction for firing an assault rifle in public during a 2018 rally.
Malema, founder and leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party, built his platform around advocating for the rights of South Africans who feel left out of the country's post-apartheid prosperity.
He has rattled investors with calls to nationalise mines and retake land by force, but his cry for economic justice in one of the world's most unequal nations attracts millions of Black youths, many of them educated but facing a bleak future in a country where one in three people are jobless.
MALEMA SENTENCE RAISES QUESTION MARK OVER EFF'S FUTURE
Malema, 45, was arraigned for firing a gun into the air during his party's fifth birthday in 2018 in Eastern Cape province, in violation of the Firearms Control Act.
He had pleaded not guilty, arguing the gun was a toy, and his lawyers appealed the sentence on Thursday.
His party calls the case a "witch hunt."
If upheld, the sentence would disqualify Malema from serving as a member of parliament - casting doubt on his ability to retain his enduring influence on South Africa's political landscape. His EFF is the fourth-biggest party, with roughly 10% of seats in the lower house of parliament.
"For him now, it might just be the end of the road," independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga said. "The party had no plan regarding succession ... (It is) difficult to imagine the EFF without Malema."
Nicknamed "Juju" by his supporters, Malema was youth leader of the ruling African National Congress.
Malema's refusal to stop singing "Kill the Boer (farmer)" - an apartheid-era resistance song - has been interpreted in far-right chat rooms and by U.S. President Donald Trump as a call to murder white farmers, who own most of the land due to a history of seizures by colonial then white minority rulers.
The courts have ruled against the chant being labelled hate speech, and there is no evidence to support assertions by Trump or the far-right that white farmers are being politically targeted.
FROM YOUTH LEADER TO PARTY FOUNDER
Born the son of a domestic worker in Limpopo, north of Johannesburg, Malema became politically active from an early age and rose through the ranks to become ANC Youth League president in 2008. He founded his breakaway party in 2013 after the ANC suspended him in 2011 for "sowing division".
His supporters are mainly young, Black South Africans - many of them students and graduates who say they are still struggling three decades after the formation of South Africa's "Rainbow Nation".
But his party has made less of an inroad among the uneducated in the slums and poorest villages, owing to his party's failure to address their concerns including water shortages.
Critics have accused Malema - a self-declared Marxist - of hypocrisy, saying his opulent lifestyle, including luxury cars and homes, clashes with his anti-elite messaging.
Malema's frequent response is that he does not need to be poor to champion the poor's cause. In January, in an address to his party faithful, he said: "Being a revolutionary is about the content of your mind and not what clothes you wear or what cars you drive."
Malema has also faced allegations of corruption, which he denies. In 2015, a court threw out money laundering charges against him relating to government contracts.
(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Additional reporting by Johnnie Isaac, Nilutpal Timsina, Anathi Madubela and Lulah Mapiye; Editing by Tim Cocks and Andrew Heavens)
