AfriForum embarks on civil suit against EFF for ‘Kill the Boer’
Lobby group AfriForum says it will pursue a civil case against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema and MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi for hate speech.
The charges relate to at least six instances where the group says the pair led party members in song, sparking outrage for their use of the phrase "kill the boer, kill the farmer".
According to the lobby group, the latest incident was in the Free State during the second court appearance of the two suspects arrested in connection with the murder of 21-year-old farm manager Brendin Horner.
Head of Policy and Action at AfriForum Ernst Roets accuses Malema and Ndlozi of acting irresponsibly and acting against the Constitution.
"The context here is that it was a young farmer or farm manager who was murdered very brutally. He was the victim of a farm murder and the perpetrators or alleged prepatrators were arrested and they are being trialled for a farm murder and outside the court room you have a political party singing "kill the boer, kill the farmer”. That's the context and that's the most important part of the context we should consider.
"Also, at this gathering, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi made a speech and sung songs in which arson was incited, particularly setting on fire farms and we do know that that happened recently in the Free State and we take the comments by Mbuyiseni Ndlozi very seriously," he adds.
AfriForum's lawyer Daniel Eloff says there are fears that the utterances of the party leader could drive members to act on the calls.
"What we'll be asking from the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg is firstly a declaratory order in terms of section 10 of the Promotion of Equality Act stating that the singing of the song on the various instances amounts to hate speech and discrimination. Secondly, we'll be asking the court for a declaratory order in terms of section 7 of PERPUDA which will find the EFF guilty of racial discrimination and targeting a particular minority group in South Africa, wilfully and quite deliberately.
ALSO READ:
AfriForum to appeal High Court ruling on section 25
The court dismissed the application on Wednesday, finding that it would not the in the interest of justice to grant the application. The lobby group wanted to challenge a previous judgment on the expropriation of land without compensation, but the court found the matter to have been moot as it has been overtaken by event.
AfriForum will also ask for a written public apology and an interdict restraining the EFF leadership and members from continuing with hate speech.
"And in the fifth place we'll be asking the court to compel the EFF to make a donation to an organisation that supports non-racialism and combats hate speech," Eloff says.
The lobby group says it also plans to pursue criminal charges against the red berets at a later stage.
The AfriForum and the EFF previously faced off in courts over the use of hate speech.
In 2011, the Supreme Court of Appeal made an order that forbids Malema from singing songs of this nature.
Malema was interdicted and restrained from singing the song known as "Dubula ibhunu" at any public or private meeting held by or conducted by him.
A settlement was later reached between the lobby group and the EFF, which was made an order of the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2012.
AfriForum says this order is still binding.
