This is not the first time the South African Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party leader Julius Malema has been heard chanting, “Kill the Boer.” At the EFF’s 10th anniversary celebration, which hosted roughly 100,000 supporters in the Johannesburg’s FNB stadium, Malema can be seen and heard on social media platforms shaping his hand like a gun, bouncing up and down and crooning, “Shoot to kill…kill the boer, the farmer.” The “boer” was a term used and known as “farmer.”
It can be dated back to the mid 1600’s as a way to describe settlers who came to the Cape of Good Hope with German, French and Dutch/Holland heritage. It is believed to refer to “white” settlers. In 2011, Johannesburg’s High Court Judge Colin Lamont found Malema guilty of “hate speech” and that he and others shouldn’t use those lyrics/words or perform the song/chant. When Malema’s filed an appeal with the Supreme Courts of Appeals, it ended up in an agreed mediation resulting in a dismissal.
In the past years Malema had changed the words to “Kiss the Boer, Kiss the Farmer,” but he clearly has brought his original chant back clear as day in the videos of Saturday’s festivities. This very debatable topic finds Malema in and out of court, sometimes being found guilty of hate speeches and other times not. The next appeal filed by Afri-forum, a civil society pressure group aiming to promote freedom and liberty in South Africa, will be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeals next month, September 2023.
By-FZ
