Legalbrief | your legal news hub Sunday 03 October 2021 Malema facing more charges ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema's shenanigans outside the court where he is defending a hate speech action - he has whipped up supporters, urging them to chant a variation of the lyrics of the 'shoot the boer' song that is central to the complaint brought by AfriForum - has landed him with another hate speech charge, writes Legalbrief. The civil rights group said it would lay additional hate speech charges against Malema and Youth league spokesperson Floyd Shivambu at the Equality Court today. 'AfriForum took this decision after Malema encouraged his followers ... to sing a song with the words 'shoot to kill' with him,' the civil rights organisation's deputy CEO Ernst Roets said, according to a report on the IoL site. 'Shivambu also sang the song dubula ibhunu (shoot the boer) outside the court this afternoon (yesterday) in front of a group of Youth League supporters, and encouraged them to sing along with him,' Roets added. 'If the Youth League really wanted to encourage peaceful co-existence in SA, they would rather have encouraged their followers to refrain from singing songs like that until the judge has given his verdict,' he said. Shivambu said no one sang any song containing the word 'boer' outside the court. 'They are being ridiculous. If they (AfriForum) want to waste their time and money, they are welcome to do that (lay charges),' he added. Full report on the IoL site See also a Beeld report Malema has likened the case to a test for the 'revolution', telling hundreds of supporters yesterday: 'There is no individual on trial... they are testing our revolution... they are testing methods we used to defeat them.' According to a report on the IoL site, he added: 'These judges are our judges, whether you like it or not, they work for the government... the government which is us, the ANC,' Malema said. He asked the group to maintain their 'militancy' and to not apologise for being radical. 'We are here to defend our history,' he said, adding that the 'incoming youth' should know about struggle songs. Malema said blacks were still engaged in a struggle for economic emancipation and wanted to 'own in this economy of SA'. Malema told the crowd that singing the song (shoot the boer) did not mean they were declaring war, or going to kill whites. 'Even in our singing, we must never be confused that we are declaring war... Even at the funeral of Chris Hani, even when we are angry... marching through the white suburbs... we have never killed any white person,' he said to cheers. And Winnie Madikizela got in on the act, too, promising supporters victory. 'You will have cause to celebrate, we promise you,' she said, according to a report ion The Mercury . Many supporters, including a young girl, carried posters depicting white children riding on the backs of black children. When the little girl was asked if she knew what this meant, her reply was 'boere is bad'. Full report on the IoL site Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed) Inside the court, it was a slow day - a day of academics and experts carefully explaining the different definitions of the word 'boer' and the meaning 'dubula Ibhunu' held for the Afrikaner community, says a report in The Mercury. The cornerstone of the Transvaal Agricultural Union's (TAU's) argument against Malema is that hate speech has nothing to do with the speaker's intent. 'It's about the reaction of the target group, the infringement of their rights. It doesn't matter what the ANC says it means by 'boer' if I understand that to be directed at me,' said Advocate Roelof du Plessis SC, interpreting the Equality Act. General Chris van Zyl, assistant CEO of TAU, described the problem of farm murders to the court as the context against which the song had to be examined. According to a report compiled by TAU, there were 2 633 farm attacks between 1990 and last year. Of these, 1 489 were murders. Equality law expert Professor Anton Kok ended the day's testimony with an examination into why the Equality Act was set up. 'We must talk to each other, sometimes very angrily, yes, but we must talk,' he said. 'That is the point of these courts: to develop a community where there is a place where people can voice their issues so that other hurtful action isn't taken. That is what Parliament meant with the Equality Act.' Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed) Afrikaners' national identity was also discussed, with an expert saying the concept of 'kill the boer' threatens Afrikaners' symbolic connection to SA. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, Federasie Vir Afrikaanse Kultuur Vereeniging (the federation of Afrikaans culture organisations) (FAK) chair, Professor Danie Goosen, told the court that the words 'kill (shoot) the boer are experienced as an utterance which places the ideals of Afrikaners in a difficult space'. He added: 'The prevalent feeling (among the Afrikaans community) is very negative ... not a single Afrikaner supports it (the utterance) within the confines that I move. It is seen as a threat to their (Afrikaners) symbolic connection to SA. This 'kill the boer' concept creates a problem with the respect between the majority and minority,' he claimed. Goosen told the court the FAK consisted of 27 organisations and was the largest body for Afrikaners, representing about 200 000 people. The utterances 'shoot the boer' or 'kill the boer' came from deep-seated insensitivity, he said. He said the majority did not understand the problems of minority groups. Full Mail & Guardian Online report The issue has drawn a heated reaction from Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder, who has accused the ANC of double standards. A report in The Citizen quotes him as saying that while the ANC was fighting in court to retain the slogan 'shoot the boer', the party's secretary general Gwede Mantashe was objecting to a Constitutional Court decision 'that Robert McBride may indeed be called a murderer'. 'It is absolute double standards of the ANC to want to decide which history they want to keep and which history does not suit them,' he said. 'To try and justify in court 'shoot the boer' in the current times of farm murders and then to sing it in front of the court, reveals an insensitivity and an arrogance by the ANC that does not promote harmony and peace,' said Mulder. He said SA needed 'a Mandela atmosphere ... not a Malema atmosphere'. Full report in The Citizen .