in World News South Africa’s Highest Court Decides ‘Kill the Boer’ is Not Hate Speech
by Joel B. Pollak
South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, has refused to allow an appeal of a lower court’s decision that the phrase “Kill the Boer,” referring to Afrikaners and farmers, was not hate speech or incitement under the law.
The decision Thursday ended a years-long battle waged by AfriForum, which represents a broad array of Afrikaner organizations, against a song used by Julius Malema and his party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
Malema has argued that the song is not meant to be taken literally — at least, not yet — as it was a song used by the liberation movements during the decades of the struggle against apartheid, which included armed conflict.
However, in the context of shocking farm murders, the song is seen by many people — especially Afrikaners and farmers — as a form of incitement to genocide.
South Africans, particularly the government, pride themselves on their 1996 Constitution and their judiciary — but as AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said, “We are seeing an increasing radical implementation of the Constitution.”