Karima Brown | Image: Twitter
Speaking to her colleague Xoli Mngambi during a morning edition broadcast of eNCA, political analyst and broadcaster Karima Brown alleged that police at the Sophiatown police station were preventing her from laying a charge of intimidation against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
“I’m laying charges because yesterday I got a WhatsApp message from an EFF member. His name is Sibonginseni Masika Thupa, he’s from Elliotdale and he said that I am enemy number one for the EFF,” said Karima, who was calling in.
Brown went on to explain that a list of journalists had received this message, including the likes of Pauli Van Wyk and Ranjeni Munusamy, among others.
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She went on to allege that EFF CIC Julius Malema had intimidated her before, citing the instance in which he laid charges against the minister of public enterprises and named Brown, telling people that she was a politician and not a journalist.
“So I am here to lay charges of incitement of violence and intimidation” repeated Brown, before adding “but what has happened is that, since I’ve come to the station, no one wants to help me.”
Brown claims that she had been sent from pillar to post and made to wait before being told to rather get a protection order against her alleged perpetrators.
“I’m not sure what exactly is the reason that I’m not allowed to lay a charge when I’ve got the SMS in front of me; I’ve got the WhatsApp in front of me, and I’ve got the person’s details,” said Brown.
Brown also cited advice from her lawyer stating that she was well within her rights to lay these charges.
She claims to have had no interaction with EFF leadership after the message was sent to her.
“Julius Malema has consistently attacked me and my person, as he has done with Pauli Van Wyk and Ranjeni Munusamy and a host of other journalists. It’s very similar to what the BLF tried to do with Peter Bruce last year,” she said.
“I wanted to lay a charge because I think that we are going into a heightened political climate, we’re going into elections and if journalists are going to be threatened by political parties and told by their leaders that they are in a war and we are their enemies, then it is important for the police to protect us and provide us with our constitutional right to be able to do our jobs,” added Brown.
“I’m not sure what I have done to the EFF. I have always invited them to come to my show.”
Those who had tuned into the live broadcast took to Twitter to react to her claims and, by the looks of things, many Twitter users feel little to no sympathy for Brown.
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