South Africa’s Equality Court on Thursday dismissed a hate speech case against Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema that the lobby group AfriForum brought against him two years ago.
AfriForum went to court after members of the EFF sang Dubul’ ibhunu, which translates to “Kill the Boer”, outside the Senekal Magistrate’s Court in Free State province during the appearance of suspects who were initially linked to the murder of 21-year-old farm manager Brendin Horner.
AfriForum argued that Malema was guilty of inciting violence and hate speech by singing the controversial song.
The group wanted the court to declare that the song constituted hate speech and for the party to apologise for its continuous chanting of it during its events.
All the five witnesses who testified on behalf of AfriForum were disqualified by Judge Edwin Molahlehi for presenting hearsay evidence in court.
This included AfriForum’s Head of Policy and Action, Ernst Roets, whom Molahlehi said had failed to meet the standards of an expert witness by providing only hearsay.
Malema said there was no proof that crowds singing the song in Senekal in the Free State province two years ago were members of the EFF, Malema said.
They could have been angry community members offended by “vigilante attacks on police and vandalism of the magistrate’s court,” he said.
He added: “I can’t say they were EFF members. But what happened in Senekal was that the community was angry that those white people attacked the police and stormed the local magistrate’s court.”
NM/jn/APA