The civil rights organisation AfriForum today submitted formal charges of hate speech against the EFF at the Equality Court in the Central Magistrate’s Court in Johannesburg. This follows an incident during which members of the EFF chanted a song with the words “white man, you must die” and “shoot to kill the Boere”.
AfriForum directed a letter of demand in this context to the leadership of the EFF, whereupon the party reacted unsatisfactory, while Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, Spokesperson of the EFF, praised the behaviour of these EFF members.
Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum and Head of AfriForum’s anti-racism unit, says that hate speech against farmers in particular must be stopped, seeing as violence against farmers is already a serious crisis. “This is not a philosophical debate. The EFF shouts ‘kill the farmers’, and the farmers are being murdered. This is the hard truth.”
Roets adds that this case will be handled as a priority and that it will probably lead to a hearing, similar to the hate speech hearing of 2011 where the court adjudged that Julius Malema and the ANC committed hate speech when they sang the song Dubula i’Bhunu (Shoot the Boer).