A South African court found the firebrand leader of the ruling ANC's youth wing guilty of hate speech on Monday. Julius Malema was fined for suggesting a woman who accused President Jacob Zuma of rape had enjoyed the sexual encounter, local media reported.
   

Malema - who has been lobbying for South Africa's mines to be nationalised - often courts controversy. A small South African opposition party laid fresh hate speech charges against him last week after he led students in a song calling for white farmers to be killed.
   

Last year a gender rights group took Malema to court over comments he made suggesting the fact that the woman stayed for breakfast after the incident involving Zuma showed she had had a "nice time".
   

The rights group said Malema's comments trivialised rape and would perpetuate sexual violence against women.
   

"The Equality Court has ruled that ... Julius Malema's comments amounted to hate speech," Talk Radio 702 reported, adding that the outspoken youth leader was ordered to apologise publicly and pay 50,000 rand ($6,750) to a shelter for abused women.
   

Malema's lawyer Tumi Mokwena later told Sapa news agency that he would appeal the ruling.
   

Equality Courts hear cases from people who have suffered unfair discrimination, hate speech or harassment.
   

Malema's ANC Youth league was instrumental in bringing Zuma to power last year and the 29-year-old is seen as useful to the ANC in its efforts to build support among the poor.
   

South Africa's High Court acquitted Zuma of raping an HIV-positive family friend in 2006, a case that drew widespread public interest and condemnation from women's groups in a country with one of the highest incidents of rape in the world.
   

Zuma denied the rape charge but admitted having unprotected sex with his accuser despite knowing she had the HIV virus.
   

Zuma's sexual conduct has again come under criticism this year after the Zulu traditionalist, a polygamist with three wives, admitted to fathering his 20th child from an extramarital relationship last year.

Source: Reuters