DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA – JULY 29, 2017: Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema speaking to the thousands of supporters during the party’s 4th anniversary celebration on July 29, 2017 in Durban, South Africa. Malema touched controversial subjects such as racism, white monopoly capital and land ownership while speaking to the EFF supporters attending the celebration.
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA – JULY 29, 2017: Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema speaking to the thousands of supporters during the party’s 4th anniversary celebration on July 29, 2017 in Durban, South Africa. Malema touched controversial subjects such as racism, white monopoly capital and land ownership while speaking to the EFF supporters attending the celebration.
The South African Minority Rights Equality Movement (Samrem) have filed charges of hate speech and incitement to violence against EFF leader Julius Malema, following his outrageous statement on Saturday.
During the party’s fourth birthday celebrations in Durban over the weekend, he made the remarks whilst addressing a large crowd inside the stadium.
Julius Malema’s comments on Indians
“Indian people are worse than Afrikaners. This is not an anti-Indian statement, it’s the truth. Indians who own shops don’t pay our people, but they give them food parcels.”
Malema’s ill-advised comments have caused a storm amongst the South African public, and Samrem felt they had no choice but to file the charges at Pietermaritzburg police station yesterday.
Daleep Lutchman is Samrem’s chairman, and he had some strong words for Malema, who has met with the group before to discuss previous offensive language used towards Indians in 2011.
Speaking after submitting the charge sheet, Lutchman had this to say:
“[His] comments are utter nonsense and devoid of any facts. What he has said has the possibility to incite racial hatred in this country. People take seriously emotional statements like these, we have seen it in the past.”
“I hope he has his day in a court. Many people make sweeping statements without justifying them.”
Afriforum file trespass charges against the EFF
It wasn’t just Samrem going after the controversial leader, however: Afriforum have filed their own case against Malema for the ‘incitement to trespass’ after he continued to encouraged black South Africans to ‘reclaim’ the land of others.
As expected, the EFF have come out fighting in typically robust fashion: Party spokesman Mbuyuseni Ndlozi has vowed that they will ‘never keep quiet in the face of criticism’, and labelled Afriforum as a ‘group of KKK supporters’:
“Afriforum is just a group of Klu Klux Klan who don’t have a life and their business is to watch the movements of the commander in chief. Everything that they’ve been saying, they’ve already said to the police, who are already on the case.”
Which side of the fence are you on? Is Malema right to use the language he did, or has he gone way too far this time? Make your voice heard in our comments section.
