The ANC has officially opened a case of treason against EFF leader Julius Malema, it said on Monday.

“The ANC has just opened a case of high treason against EFF and its leader Julius Malema in his personal capacity with Hillbrow police station,” national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa told News24.

“The threat to remove a lawfully, democratically-elected leader through an undemocratic process is against the law and the Constitution.

“We call on SAPS to investigate a charge of high treason,” he said.

He said the ruling party was doing this for all South Africans as well as to defend and protect the country’s hard won democracy and freedom.

This was after Malema told Al Jazeera that his party would “remove this government through the barrel of a gun”.

During an episode of Talk To Al Jazeera last week, Malema told Jonah Hull that if the ruling ANC continued to respond violently to peaceful protests, “we will run out of patience very soon and we will remove this government through the barrel of a gun”.

Malema was asked what this meant and if he was literally saying people should take up arms against the government.

Malema responded: “Yeah, literally. I mean it literally. We are not scared. We are not going to have a government that disrespects us.”

Kodwa had told News24 earlier that his utterances were treasonable and constituted a violation of the Independent Electoral Commission charter which was signed by all political parties committing them to a free and fair election.