The civil rights organisation AfriForum’s hate speech case against Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and the EFF was heard in the Southern Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg over the past two weeks. AfriForum lodged its complaint in October 2020 after supporters of the EFF sang “Kill the Boer, Kill the farmer” outside the Magistrate’s Court in Senekal, where the accused murderers of farm manager Brendin Horner were tried.
First and foremost, if the South African media was responsible in their coverage of the AfriForum vs EFF case, they would have shone a bright light on the disturbing and dangerous comments that had been made under oath by Julius Malema, the leader of the third largest political party in the country. Unfortunately, the media largely failed in this regard. Therefore, I am going to outline and document in detail the remarks that Malema made that we should take note of due to their dangerous and horrifying nature. I will present these in chronological order with timestamps for reference and context.
Day 1 of the cross-examination of Julius Malema
The first important revelation comes when Malema testifies (4:38:39) that, if every word of the songs that the EFF sing was meant literally, he and his supporters would have used real guns and shot these into the air rather than simply gesturing with their hands. Adv. Mark Oppenheimer, council for AfriForum, responds with an incisive question: “Would you stand on a stage with a real gun and shoot it in the air?” Malema refuses to answer, because he will be on trial in March 2022 for appearing to fire an assault rifle during an EFF rally in 2018.
Malema later refuses to condemn EFF supporters who sang “Kill the Boer” at Senekal in 2020 after he is shown video evidence of this (5:04:52). He justifies their hate speech by arguing that they “are angry”. Soon after, Oppenheimer points out (5:11:33) that Malema denied farm murders in his speech at Senekal, and that Malema chooses to talk about crime in general when he is confronted by the issue of farm attacks. On the other hand, Malema specifically talks about black oppression, as opposed to oppression in general.
Oppenheimer then presents two cases to Malema (5:22:45) in which anti-white racial hatred can be clearly connected to farm attacks and murders. Malema evades the question at first, but later at 5:28:28 denies that racial hatred can play a role in farm murders, even in the cases presented. Oppenheimer asks Malema whether white people can be victims in South Africa (5:50:56). Malema emphatically answers: “No, not at the current moment. No, no, no, no.”