Kill the Boer: AfriForum will tackle Malema’s hate speech in Supreme Court of Appeal

The civil rights organisation AfriForum has announced that its appeal against the Equality Court’s finding that the Kill the Boer chant is not hate speech will be heard on 4 September in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. AfriForum made this announcement after Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, sang Kill the Boer again this past weekend during the EFF’s tenth anniversary celebrations.

Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, says that this appeal court case forms part of AfriForum’s strategy to oppose Malema’s racist and polarizing actions on three fronts, namely, through legal actions, the mobilization of community safety structures and the promotion of mutual recognition and respect between cultural communities.

According to Kriel, as part of its legal strategy, AfriForum has already appointed a prominent senior advocate and legal team to call Malema to account in the Court of Appeal and the organisation is ready to even approach the Constitutional Court if necessary. “I believe AfriForum has a strong case against Malema, but should the South African courts find that it is acceptable for Malema to sing songs that incite genocide against minorities, AfriForum will pursue the case internationally,” adds Kriel.

The second leg of AfriForum’s strategy involves mobilizing communities to oppose any attempts to act violently. “Community safety structures played a key role in ensuring that the EFF’s shut down attempt on 20 March this year failed miserably. AfriForum’s 168 neighbourhood watches and thousands of volunteers are ready to help, together with other security role players, within the framework of the law, to ensure that any future attempts by the EFF to cause nationwide disruption will be as big a failure for the EFF as 20 March was,” says Kriel.

The third leg of the strategy to neutralize Malema’s polarizing actions is for AfriForum to further accelerate its existing way of working to conclude agreements of mutual recognition, respect and cooperation with different cultural communities. “By ensuring that the majority of people’s grassroots pursuit of peace and tolerance is transformed into a cooperation network against polarizing actions, the polarizers – who are in the minority – will be isolated even further,” according to Kriel.

AfriForum encourages the public to show their support for the fight against Malema’s hate speech at www.stopmalema.co.za.