EFF's Marshall Dlamini gets suspended sentence for assault in ...

EFF secretary-general Marshall Dlamini (in black) leaves court after being sentenced. (Jenni Evans/News24)

EFF secretary-general Marshall Dlamini has been sentenced in the Cape Town Regional Court to 18 months in prison, suspended for five years, for assaulting policeman Johan Carstens in Parliament in 2019. 

Dlamini was also sentenced to a fine of R6 000 or three months in prison for malicious damage to property. 

"I am prepared to accept that, indeed, a lesson had been learned," said Magistrate Nasha Banwari in pre-sentencing remarks about why she had not chosen a custodial sentence. 

Dlamini was charged with assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, as well as damage to property, following an incident after the 2019 State of the Nation Address. 

Banwari convicted him of assaulting Carstens and breaking his glasses during the incident in the lobby of the National Assembly on 7 February 2019.

In his defence, Dlamini claimed that he thought EFF leader Julius Malema was going to be attacked.

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