The EFF has welcomed the dismissal of a “frivolous” assault case against party deputy president Floyd Shivambu by the Cape Town magistrate’s court on Wednesday.

The party said the dismissal demonstrates that cases against it and its leaders are nothing but a smear campaign aimed at tainting its reputation and that of its leaders who are advocates of economic freedom. 

“All the charlatans, chance takers, and agents of white monopoly capital will continue to be exposed on the picket lines, on the benches of our judiciary, and across all spheres of society as opportunists who can never defeat an idea whose time has come,” said the party. 

Media24 photographer Adrian de Kock accused Shivambu of assaulting him in the parliamentary precinct in 2018. 

He claimed he had taken pictures of Shivambu when the politician told him he did not have permission and demanded he delete them.

He alleged that Shivambu and two unidentified men attacked him when he refused. 

Magistrate Lindiwe Gura cleared Shivambu, and said evidence from De Kock and his witnesses were contradictory.

The EFF said the state had no basis for a case against Shivambu. 

“After more than three years of a tedious and frivolous back and forth, over a matter involving an invasive and arrogant white-male journalist, sense prevailed over a witch-hunt, in which the state was exposed for having no basis for a case against the deputy president.”