by Ernst Roets
It is the advocacy of hatred that must constitute the incitement to cause harm. The focus must be on whether the expression itself causes or is likely to cause harm and not on the subjective intention of the person articulating it.26
The argument of the FXI was thus rejected. In other words, in determining whether a particular statement amounts to hate speech, the question lies not in what caused the statement or what the intention of the person making the statement was. What is more important is the consequence of the statement. In looking at the consequence, it is not necessary to prove that the statement led to actual physical harm, such as that any person was attacked.
The Commission found that:
The slogan, under consideration in this appeal, was chanted at high profile functions organised by the African National Congress, the ruling party in this country. These events and the chanting of the slogans were widely publicised. There can be no doubt that the slogan, given its content, its history and the context in which it was chanted, would harm the sense of well-being, contribute directly to a feeling of marginalisation, and adversely affect the dignity of Afrikaners.27
The Commission continued:
The slogan says to them that they are still the enemy of the majority of the people of this country. It contributes to the alienation of the target community and conveys a particularly divisive message to the majority community that the target community is less deserving of respect and dignity.28
On that day, ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’ was found to be hate speech.29
Since then, the ANC leadership has largely refrained from singing the song at public gatherings, although the song was and is still regularly sung by ANC supporters.30
In the month following on 17 April 1993 – the first public chanting of ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’, which was widely reported in the media – 19 farm attacks took place, during which 15 people were murdered. Compared to the monthly averages for that year, an upwards variance of 41% in farm attacks and 135% in farm murders was evident.
Table 11: Variance in farm attacks and murders after Peter Mokaba’s chanting of ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’31
Figure 20: Farm murders per week during 1993 (The week in which Peter Mokaba publicly started chanting ‘Kill the Boer, kill the Farmer’ is indicated in red.)32
Former President Nelson Mandela with Peter Mokaba, former President of the ANC Youth League. Mokaba popularised the song ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’. The song was later declared to be hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission.
Photo: Gallo Images/Sunday Times
Robert managed to bite a hole in the bag, however, allowing him to breathe. They made him sit in the double-cab bakkie, behind the driver’s seat. He heard a thump in the back and realised that they had just thrown Susan into the back of the bakkie. ‘It was like they dropped a bag of potatoes,’ recalls Robert.
CHAPTER 15
Shoot the Boer
One young member of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) who was particularly inspired by the words and actions of the League’s President Peter Mokaba was an unknown fellow called Julius Sello Malema. In 2008, several years after Mokaba’s death, Malema was also elected President of the ANCYL. Malema describes himself as a product of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Peter Mokaba,1 both figures known for their radical views and deeds. Madikizela-Mandela claimed to have groomed Malema from before he became President of the ANCYL and referred to him as her ‘product’.2 Other than for facing corruption charges, Madikizela-Mandela was also known for her involvement with the murder of the 14-year-old Stompie Seipei3 and her public encouragement of the use of necklacing as a method of murder.4
The ‘necklace’ was a method often used by members of the African National Congress (ANC) during the 1980s to execute members of rival black organisations or people who had been accused of being spies for the government. Typically, the victim’s hands would be tied behind his back, often with wire, after which a rubber tyre filled with petrol would be pulled over the victim’s head, around the victim’s body. A match would then be struck to set the petrol-filled tyre on fire. The victims were then usually kicked and stoned by a cheering mob, while burning to death.
However, Malema’s self-ascribed role model in life is Peter Mokaba.5 Malema once described how he had gone to Mokaba’s grave to ask for his blessing before the conference where he (Malema) was elected President of the ANCYL and how he had gone back to his grave after the conference to ‘report back’ on his election as such.6
THE RISE OF THE MALEMAPHILES
Malema took over the ANCYL presidency from Fikile Mbalula, under whose leadership the ANCYL had become known for being ‘thuggish’.7 The ANCYL had always been controversial and more aggressive than its parent organisation, but it was clearly reaching new levels of extremity.
It was a time when Jacob Zuma, aspiring to become President of South Africa, was facing prosecution for several hundred charges of corruption. From the very start of his term as ANCYL President, Malema took the ‘thuggishness’ to new heights when he said that he (Malema) and the ANCYL were prepared not only to die for Zuma as his predecessor had said, but even to ‘take up arms and kill for Zuma’.8 Former President Kgalema Motlanthe, (Deputy President of the ANC at that time), responded angrily: ‘We have had so much killing and violence and for someone at this point to talk about killing! It is one thing if you are prepared to die and lay your life down, but to kill? What do you mean?’ He continued: ‘They started by throwing water bottles and next time it will be hand grenades. That is how it starts.’9
Motlanthe’s criticism was almost the opposite to that of Zuma, who simply said that Malema had explained what he meant. Malema merely said that he would never apologise for what he had said.10
Leadership in the ANC, but particularly the ANCYL, has reached the point where those who are not radical are sidelined completely. This militancy is directed against ‘white monopoly capital’ and in favour of aggressive ‘redistribution’ of land, particularly agricultural land.
Malema had started making name for himself within the ANC structures back in 2003 when Madikizela-Mandela was found guilty on 68 charges of fraud and theft. Malema responded that he would paralyse the country if she went to jail. ‘The prosecutor is white, the magistrate is also white and the court buildings also represent the “Boer” regime, however the accused is a black woman from a township called Soweto and it does not come as a surprise she was found guilty,’ he said.11
In 2009, he called Helen Zille, the then leader of the opposition party, a ‘racist little girl’ who ‘must remember that Zuma is her boss’.12 A few months later, he called her a cockroach.13 The cockroach comment was particularly striking as it was the same word that was used by the Hutu of Rwanda to dehumanise the Tutsi minority as they were preparing for genocide.14
Motlanthe distanced himself from Malema’s statement again, repudiating the cockroach statement and stating that it was ‘bad manners’,15 but the ANC refrained from taking disciplinary action.
On 8 May 2011, Malema and Zuma were addressing an election rally of about 3 000 supporters at Kimberley in the Northern Cape. With Zuma sitting on the stage behind him, Malema uttered the words: ‘Once we agree they [white people] stole our land, we can agree that they are criminals and must be treated as such.’16
Despite broad condemnation by minority communities, the ANC President never repudiated or even attempted to contextualise what Malema said that day.
THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS (EFF)
Malema was later expelled from the ANC, not for his attacks on white people, but for his misconduct towards the leadership of the party.17 He went on to establish the ‘radical, leftist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movement’, the EFF, in July 2013.18 The first of its ‘cardinal pillars’ declares that South Africa’s land must be expropriated without compensation.19
At the launch of the movement, branded banners were displayed with the w
ords: ‘A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.’
Another banner read: ‘Honeymoon is over for white people in South Africa.’ The EFF responded to criticism saying that the banners were not official. 20
Criminal charges were filed against Malema after he encouraged black people to illegally invade the land of white farmers. Appearing before the Magistrate in Newcastle on 7 November 2016, Malema defended his position:
We are not calling for the slaughter of white people‚ at least for now … The rightful owners of the land are black people. No white person is a rightful owner of the land here in SA and the whole of the African continent.21
Responding to criticism about his speech, Malema elaborated after appearing in court in Bloemfontein. Several extracts of his speech are published here:
My wish is to see [the last white President of South Africa, [FW] De Klerk suffering, for a very long time, for the crimes they committed against black people! They were never punished for that!
When we leave here, you see any beautiful piece of land, you will like it, occupy it! It belongs to you! It is your land! It is the land of your forefathers. It was the land that was taken from us by white people, by force, through genocide! They killed our people!
We are not talking violence, we are not promoting violence, but I cannot guarantee the future. I am not a prophet. I am talking now. We are not carrying any weapons. I will never kill white people. Why should I kill them? I will never revenge for what they did. I am asking politely for the land to be returned. And if they don’t return it, I cannot guarantee what will happen.
Afrikaner boys, the poppe sal dans! (English: The dolls will dance. It is an Afrikaans idiom to express that there is going to be trouble.) The EFF is coming for you, boy!
Just pray, pray to ancestors, pray to [DF] Malan, pray to [Hendrik] Verwoerd, pray and ask them for EFF not to come into power. Because we come into power ‘Afrikaner male this side! This is where you belong.’
We are not scared of Afrikaners! This is not your land! You must know your place, you are visitors here. And the long stay of visitors depends on their conduct. If you continue to misbehave, feeding our people to lions, putting our people who are still alive in the coffins, then you are applying for something else.22
As is the case with the ANC’s leadership, Malema’s hate speech is usually directed at white people in general, but importantly also to a certain cultural ethnic group in particular – the Afrikaners, or Boers. In the month following Malema’s speech about white people and Afrikaners in Newcastle, 12 farm murders were committed, as opposed to the monthly average of 6,25 for that year.23 This constitutes an upward variance of 92% in farm murders.24
On 28 February 2018 while speaking at a political gathering in Soweto, Gauteng, Malema reiterated:
We don’t back whites. We don’t care about their feelings. They have made us suffer for a very long time. It’s our turn now. They must be happy we are not beating them up. They must be happy we are not calling for genocide. We are exercising our political freedom and we are hurting them the most.
We are exercising political power. It is more hurtful, it is more painful than a gun. It is more painful than a spear. We hurt you and take from you without a drop of blood.25
The latter statement was a reference to the EFF’s call for the expropriation of white-owned farmland without compensation and the claim that white farmers will or should not resist when their farms are taken from them.
Malema called on his supporters to occupy land ‘legally, but by force if necessary.’ He explained that it was their right to have land and that it wasn’t illegal to occupy something that belonged to you in any case.26 He added that those who had not yet taken a piece of land for themselves were cowards.27
When thousands of South Africans protested against the continued scourge of farm murders on 30 October 2017 (an event which became known as Black Monday), EFF spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi responded, labelling the marches against farm murders as an act of racism.
‘The EFF has observed with disgust the racist marches that took place yesterday going under the name of Black Monday,’ he said. ‘These marches proudly promoted anti-back racism by a tiny white minority which seeks to gain public sympathy using apartheid symbols like the apartheid government flag ... The premise of these marches is a full-blown stupidity that there is an orchestrated killing of white farmers by black people. This fear, unfortunately, is part of the persistent colonial settler collective guilt of thinking one day black people will punish whites for their apartheid and colonial crimes. As a result, they withdraw into an apartheid memory with its deep wishes for a whites-only society in Africa,’ Ndlozi added.
The party also called on those who demonstrated to leave the country. ‘We call on all who took to the streets yesterday, who wish for the return of apartheid and protection under its values to take the next convenient boats and leave our country. The land and farms that they occupy will simply be assumed by other commercial farmers,’ Ndlozi said.28
SHOOT THE BOER
Since the finding by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) that ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’ was hate speech, the ANC leadership resorted to the singing of other similar songs that simply had different words.
On 9 March 2010, Malema was addressing a crowd of about 250 people at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), when he suddenly burst into song. The song was ‘Dubula iBhunu’ (also referred to as ‘Ayasaba Amagwala’).29
In fact, Malema had also sung the song in Polokwane in Limpopo at his birthday party a week before this event – Limpopo is a province in which six farmers were murdered in that month alone.30 The words of the song were translated by a professional language practitioner at UJ as follows:
Ayasaba amagwala (They are scared, the cowards)
Awudubule (i)bhunu (Shoot the/a Boer)
Ziyarobha le zintsha (They rape, these dogs)31
The SAHRC had received ten complaints of hate speech within one day after Malema’s singing of the song on 9 March. 32 AfriForum had also announced that it would take up Malema’s conduct in the Equality Court.33 Two days after Malema’s singing of ‘Dubula iBhunu’ when Jackson Mthembu, ANC Spokesperson, was arrested for drunk driving, he sang ‘Dubula iBhunu’ while being held in a prison cell. Mthembu continued:
This song was sung for many years even before Malema was born ... Julius doesn’t even know who’s the writer of the song. He got it from us (the ANC). You must blame the ANC, don’t blame Julius. But when you blame the ANC, then contextualise it.34
Moeletsi Mbeki, political commentator and brother of former President Thabo Mbeki, responded, saying that what Malema was doing was nothing more than a call for the slaughter of Afrikaners.35 Gwede Mantashe, the then Secretary General of the ANC, attacked critics of the song, saying that the song would not be erased from the ANC’s history because of people who were sensitive.36
In the meantime, farm attacks were increasing. Within days after Malema’s singing of the song at UJ, at least two farmers were murdered. An unknown number of attackers fired multiple shotgun blasts through the bedroom window of a Potchefstroom farmhouse at around midnight, fatally wounding a sleeping 46-year-old farmer in his back. The attackers did not attempt to break into the farmhouse or steal anything. This attack came one day after five men had overpowered 65-year-old Jan Wheeler in his bedroom, stabbing him repeatedly before shooting him multiple times. This was the 36th violent farm attack in Limpopo in just over four months.37
Meanwhile, a Malema supporter started publishing updates about farm attacks on Malema’s Facebook page every few hours. The page had about 12 000 followers at the time. One of the posts stated: ‘3 000 farmerz dead since ’94 … we lost more people than that … we r far from being even … So kill da boer, kill da farmer.’38
In another post, the same Malema supporter wrote that eight farmers had been murdered on farms in Limpopo since the beginning of February 2010. W
hen asked about his intentions behind the post, he responded that he had never killed anyone, but that he did not have any sympathy for farmers who were murdered. ‘[S]ue me for not shedding a tear.’39
Another Malema supporter posted on his public page:
You fucking white pigs. Malema is our leader. He will kill zuma within 6 weeks, look ahead my fellow black people. We will then take our land, and every trespasser, namely white whores, we will rape them and rape them until the last breath is out. White kids will be burned, specially those in pretoria and Vrystaat. Men will be tortured while I take a video clip and spread it on You tube.
Collen, we shall stand together and rape those fuckers. Its true what Malema said, silently we shall kill them… Police will stand together…. OUr leader will lead us to take our land over. Mandela will smile again..
White naaiers we are coming for you!!!!!!! Households will be broken into and families will be slaughtered.40 (‘Naaier’ is the Afrikaans word for ‘fucker’.)
A few days later, the Chairperson of the South African Students Congress (SASCO), the student wing of the ANCYL, shouted ‘Dubula iBhunu’ during a political debate on the Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University.41
The ANC came out in support of Malema, threatening to take legal action against those who campaigned for Malema to stop singing ‘Dubula iBhunu’ on the basis that these campaigns were putting his life at risk. ‘As the ANC, we draw the conclusion that it (the campaign) is meant to incite, instigate and mobilise some people to harm and even lead to the execution of the ANCYL President,’ said Ishmael Mnisi, ANC spokesperson.42 ‘Whoever has a problem with that song, has a problem with the Struggle,’ added Mthembu.43