‘I didn’t sing Kill the Boer’: Malema grilled in court case against AfriForum

Julius Malema said when he had chanted the words “Kiss the boer”, at an Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) birthday rally in Durban in 2017, it was in a bid “to provoke white supremacists who had declared that it was immoral for a black person to kiss a white person”.

“When we say ‘kiss’ we know that the racists will become red because they will never appreciate that there is a call for black people to kiss white people,” he said on the stand of the Equality Court, sitting at the High Court in Johannesburg, yesterday.

Malema was testifying in the hate speech case that AfriForum brought against his party over the use of the controversial song Dubul’ ibhunu (which translates as “shoot the Boer”” or “kill the boer”).

ALSO READ: AfriForum argues ‘Shoot the Boer’ song is hate speech

During cross-examination yesterday afternoon, a video clip of Malema chanting “shoot to kill … kiss the boer” at the EFF’s fourth birthday celebration in Durban in July 2017 was played.

Counsel for AfriForum, Mark Oppenheimer then grilled Malema on the meaning behind his words.

“What is the message you are trying to deliver?” Oppenheimer asked him.

“The message in the chant is very clear. ‘Shoot to kill’ … means shoot to kill the enemy forces who are standing between us and our freedom … And then the ‘kiss’ is exactly that, it means ‘kiss the boer, kiss the farmer’.

“Because I know when I say that you [AfriForum] are going to take offence. Because you know why? Because you know why? You [AfriForum] don’t want a black person kissing a white person, it’s an immoral act according to the Immorality Act during apartheid,” Malema replied.

But Oppenheimer suggested the explanation struck him “as an after-the-fact explanation to try to cover coded language that would be apparent to everyone else”.

READ MORE: Shivambu certain of victory in ‘Kill the Boer’ case against AfriForum

He put it to Malema that “there don’t appear to be any other instances where you have taken this line, in other chants that black people should kiss white people in order to offend white supremacists”.

Earlier in proceedings, during his evidence-in-chief, Malema denied having sung “kill the boer”.

“No, I think you’ve got the wrong man. I didn’t sing ‘kill the boer’. Even in the videos they [AfriForum] presented, not a single video shows me singing ‘kill the boer’, so I think they [AfriForum] are looking for a wrong person,” he insisted.

He maintained, however, that the song was in any case not intended to be taken literally and that the reference to “boer” in it was to farmers insofar as they represented “the face of land dispossession”.

The case continues today.