DA and AfriForum celebrate Equality Court ruling against Julius Malema's hate speech

The Democratic Alliance (DA) and controversial lobby group AfriForum have welcomed the Western Cape Equality Court’s decision to find EFF leader Julius Malema guilty of hate speech.

The ruling was made earlier on Wednesday. 

The court said Malema's comments demonstrated a clear intention to incite harm and promote or propagate hatred. 

The remarks referred to were made by Malema during the EFF’s 3rd Provincial Peoples Assembly, which was held in the Western Cape on October 16, 2022. 

The court found that the statements constituted an exhortation to kill white males who had participated in an incident on November 9, 2020, at the Brackenfell High School during which EFF members were involved in a violent confrontation between members of a residents’ group and the police.

Reacting to the ruling, DA leader John Steenhuisen said that the judgment affirms that no one, regardless of their position or political office, is above the law.

"Political leaders have a responsibility to foster nation building and social cohesion, not to destroy and divide. Hate speech has no place in our society, especially at a time when our nation requires urgent collective effort to address poverty, unemployment, and inequality," he said.

Steenhuisen said the party will be exploring further action that can be taken to enforce serious consequences against Malema's hate speech.

"South Africa’s Constitution protects freedom of expression, but it draws a clear line where speech incites hatred, discrimination, or violence. Julius Malema has repeatedly crossed that line. A political leader who incites mass murder, is not normal, nor permissible," he added.

Ernst van Zyl, Head of Public Relations at AfriForum, the judgment confirms that Malema and the EFF are extremists that incite violence against minorities and spread a message of racial hatred.

“This judgment, alongside the UK government refusing Malema a visa due to his violent, extremist rhetoric, as well as the US State department sounding the alarm over the EFF’s incitement of violence against minority groups, casts a shameful shadow on Ramaphosa and the ANC’s continued refusal to condemn Malema and “Kill the Boer” in no uncertain terms,” added Van Zyl.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the EFF said the ruling was a distortion of history and philosophy and trampled on freedom of speech. 

"We note the Court’s ruling as an attack on the democratic space and the right to articulate revolutionary politics. The language of revolution cannot be sanitised to comfort the sensitivities of those who continue to enjoy the fruits of colonial dispossession and have never experienced racial violence whatsoever. The real violence is the daily reality of landlessness, unemployment, and racism that black people endure," said the party.

sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za

IOL News

Get your news on the go, click here to join the IOL News WhatsApp channel.