JULIUS Malema told the Equality Court that declaring the Dubulibhunu struggle song as hate speech would mean declaring the black struggle as hate.
The EFF leader was responding to accusations by AfriForum deputy CEO Ernst Roets on Wednesday, 16 February that he sang the song which translates to “kill the boer”.
But Malema denied singing it.
“To declare it as hate is to declare our struggle as hate. Our struggle has never been hate. Our struggle was a just course,” he said.
Malema said the song was historical and directed at the system of oppression.
Roets wants the struggle song declared hate speech and seeks an order for Malema to apologise and pay damages for singing the song.
But Malema denied he sang the song in any videos used as evidence in court.
“I did not sing kill the boer. I think you got the wrong man. Not even in the videos that they presented before My Lord shows me sing ‘Kill the Boer’. I think they are looking for a wrong person,” said Malema.
He said he sang “kiss the boer” to provoke white supremacists who take offence at black people kissing white people.
He said when he and other youngsters joined the struggle, they received political education so they could understand that the song referred to the system of oppression.
“When black police drove into black townships, we used to run and say there comes the boers, but there were no boers in the vans. Anything that symbolises the system was referred to as amabhunu,” said Malema.
He said for EFF members, boers meant farmers. “A boer will mean a farmer to us because farmers are the face of land dispossession. So if you take a farmer and the land question, you give land question a face and that face is a farmer.”
Malema said it must be made clear that Mzansi has a problem with crime in general, not crime against whites.
“There’s a problem of violent crime in South Africa. Farmers are not saved from that. Women are not saved from that. Children are not saved from that. Crime is not exclusive to farmers. South Africa is a crime scene,” said Malema.
