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COPE welcomes the ruling by the Equality Court in finding ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema guilty of hate speech.

His comments were an insult to women everywhere. Such irresponsible utterances show the inherent chauvinism, misogyny and muddled thinking that inform Julius Malema's rationale. We live in a country where violence against women is still a massive problem. As an individual that President Zuma saw fit to pronounce as "worthy of inheriting the ANC", this ruling reflects poorly on the judgement of the President of the Republic as well.

It is high time that Julius Malema was reigned in. This judgement shows that even if his paymasters and the executive aren't prepared to reign in their noisemaker-in-chief, the courts will.

Given recent revelations that the "champion of the poor" is a very wealthy man, the R50 000 fine is easily within his means to pay. However, COPE wonders whether Mr Malema is able to eat humble pie and offer a sincere public apology as ordered by the court.