The Red Berets scored a sensational victory against AfriForum on Thursday 25 August – Photo: EFF
The Red Berets scored a sensational victory against AfriForum on Thursday 25 August – Photo: EFF
The EFF has secured a significant victory over AfriForum in the Equality Court on Thursday. Facing a lawsuit for hate speech, the Red Berets have been accused of ‘inciting farm attacks’ by singing the highly controversial Kill The Boer struggle song at various rallies.
Kill The Boer, Kiss The Boer, or Dubula Ibhunu? Whatever you call it, it’s not hate speech…
However, Judge Molahleli was unmoved by AfriForum’s case. The top magistrate told the court in Johannesburg that the prosecution had failed to provide any meaningful evidence that could link the song to any brutal crimes committed on South Africa’s farmsteads in recent years.
It was a day where the writing was very much on the wall for AfriForum. In sharing a summary of the verdict, Molahleli confirmed that ALL five witnesses summoned by the lobby group were disqualified from the case. Even their head of policy, Ernst Roets, was amongst the exclusions.
JUST IN: All 5 witnesses on behalf of #AfriForum have been disqualified. Ernst Roets is too invested in the matter according to the judge & others testimony was unable to show how the song “kill the boer” by the #EFF had serious repercussions on farm attacks. #eNCA https://t.co/igVe83rj4Y
— Heidi Giokos (@HeidiGiokos) August 25, 2022
Kill The Boer: How AfriForum lost their court battle against the EFF
All in all, it was a bruising outing for AfriForum. This comprehensive legal defeat also came with heavy financial implications for the group, who have since been ordered to pay the EFF’s court costs. Talk about adding insult to injury, hey?
The judge also declared that he ‘generally accepted’ the evidence Julius Malema submitted in his own defence. The ruling means that singing Kill The Boer cannot be classed as hate speech, despite its allegedly inflammatory content.
EFF 1-0 AfriForum: Red Berets sing controversial struggle song – SECONDS after verdict delivered!
AfriForum essentially failed to show the lyrics ‘are based on prohibited grounds’, nor could they supply proof that they have ever ‘incited harm’. With that being said, the EFF representatives in court immediately serenaded the dock with an edited version of Kill The Boer.
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— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) August 25, 2022
The court has ruled that declaring the song Dubula Ibhunu as hate speech would curtail freedom of expression. Therefore, the court dismissed that the song constitutes hate speech and that Afriforum must pay the costs #EFFBeatsAfriforum pic.twitter.com/41Kkeudwiq
