Gordhan lays criminal charges against Malema

Gordhan, accompanied by his lawyer Tebogo Malatji, laid the charges on Monday. 

The charges - crimen injuria, inciting public violence and defamation of character - relate to comments made by Malema last week outside the commission of inquiry into state capture. 

 Malema led a protest outside the venue while Gordhan was testifying and accused him of enabling state capture.

Malema also claimed Gordhan’s daughter benefited from multimillion-rand tenders from several government departments.

Godhan will also file a complaint against Malema at the Equality Court.

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"We felt there is a case of crimen injuria which mean you harm my dignity, you harm my person, you are also propagating hate speech as well and that this combination of the attack on one's dignity, the attack on society more generally, propagating hating in the society has to be stopped," Gordhan told the media outside the police station.

Gordhan said while political attacks are to be expected, personal attacks are never warranted.

"You can't go around - for example - condemning the Zondo commission, can't call an evidence leader and advocate by the name B, you can't call us dogs. At the same time, you can't spread wrong rumours about families."

Malatji says the two main suspects in the case are Malema and his deputy, Floyd Shivambu.