Key topics:
- South Africa’s government promotes harmful racial stereotypes against whites.
- Politicians’ violent rhetoric fuels racial conflict, notably “Kill the Boer” song.
- Farm murders remain high, with little government condemnation of hate speech.
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By Dave Steward
In this article I examine the third charge against the South Africa government in the US Executive Order of 7 February 2025 that “hateful rhetoric and government actions are fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavoured landowners”.
Sadly, the era of reconciliation introduced by Nelson Mandela has long since passed. As observed by former President FW de Klerk on 31 January 2020
“The Government’s public discourse is increasingly characterised by negative racial stereotypes:
- white South Africans are castigated as the bearers of ‘original sin’;
- they are told that they are not “the rightful owners” of land to which they hold legal title;
- their relative prosperity is not the result of their own hard work, qualifications and ingenuity – but of the historic exploitation of others;
- they are being made scapegoats for all the continuing problems of the country – including unemployment, inequality and poverty;
- they are told by a constitutional court judge that their culture should be buried in the dustbin of history; and
- they are referred to as ‘colonialists’ – as aliens who do not really belong in South Africa and who have made absolutely no positive contribution to the country.
“The disturbing thing about such stereotypes is that they are fervently believed by those who propagate them – including, disturbingly, some of our top judges, Chapter IX institutions and many political leaders.
“All this is extremely dangerous. Such stereotypes dehumanise people. They create space for even more radical elements to sweep up ethnic animosity and increase the danger of racial conflict – with all the dreadful and irreparable consequences that would ensue.”
More radical elements have, indeed, been sweeping up ethnic animosity:
The “Kill the Boer” Song
Julius Malema, now the leader of the fourth largest political party in South Africa, on a number of occasions in March 2010 and subsequently, sang “the Kill the Boer” song. On 12 September Judge Colin Lamont handed down a definitive judgement in the Equality Court that the song constituted hate speech. He interdicted Malema and the ANC from singing the song which included the words
“Shoot! Shoot! Shoot them with a gun; shoot the Boer!
Shoot! Shoot! Shoot them with a gun
Ma, let me ‘shoot the Boer’; Shoot! Shoot! Shoot them with a gun!
These dogs rape us: “shoot the Boer” the farmer. Shoot to kill. Shoot to kill.”
Despite the interdict, President Zuma sang the “kill the Boer” song only four months later at the ANC’s annual anniversary rally which was held on 8 January 2011 in Bloemfontein. He included the words “The Cabinet will shoot them with the machine gun!” – thus disspelling the contention that this was simply a struggle song from the ANC’s revolutionary past.
In August, 2022, the Johannesburg Equality Court swept the Lamont judgement aside and ruled that the “Kill the Boer“ song was not hate speech.
Julius Malema’s statements of 7 November 2016
On 7 November 2016, before appearing in the Newcastle Magistrates Court on a charge of riotous assembly, Julius Malema, leader of the EFF party, made a speech to his followers gathered outside the court that included the following statements:
In November 2016 the FW de Klerk Foundation lodged a complaint with the SAHRC regarding to Malema’s statement. On 8 March 2019 the SAHRC informed the Foundation that it had found that Malema’s statements did not constitute hate speech. The SAHRC commented as follows on the hurtfulness of hate speech:
“Furthermore, ‘hurtful’ should be interpreted as meaning ‘severe psychological impact’, To the extent that the statement might have a severe impact on a proportion of white South Africans, for example farmers who feel unsafe. (Emphasis added)
Thus, in the view of the SAHRC the test of hurtfulness is not whether it has “a severe impact’ on a targeted minority – but what the view of “most South Africans” might be.
Andile Mngxitama
On 8 December 2018, Andile Mngxitama, then leader of Black First Land First (BLF) and now an MP for the MK Party, told supporters at a BLF rally in Tlokwe, Potchefstroom, that they should be “prepared to kill for our land, as much as we are prepared to die for our land. We mean it!”
“For every one black person, we will kill five white people….. You kill one of us, we’ll kill five white people. We will kill the children! We will kill the women! We will kill anything that we find on our way!”
AfriForum laid a hate speech complaint against Mngxitama in the Johannesburg Equality Court. The Court found him not guilty because Mngxitama’s words “were not to be taken literally but figuratively” (despite the fact that he had clearly said that “we mean it!”).
There is no record of the ANC government ever having condemned any of these egregious statements. In any other multicultural country the incessant barrage of incendiary statements by leading politicians against a section of its population on the basis of its race, would be unthinkable. In the case of South Africa such stereotypes are likely to stir up some degree of racial animosity – or at the very least – reinforce perceptions of white moral inferiority and black entitlement.
Throughout history the position of economically advantaged and ethnically distinct minorities has been problematical. Examples include the Jews in Europe; the Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia; the Asians in Uganda; the whites in Zimbabwe – and now increasingly whites and, to a lesser extent, Indians, in South Africa.
Such communities often present irresistible targets for majoritarian governments: they are usually politically disempowered; they provide useful scapegoats for government failures; they present rallying points for racial mobilisation; and their relative wealth offers the prospect of easy enrichment.
Farm Murders
It is against this background that consideration should be given to farm murders in South Africa. Between 1994 and 2020 an average of 69 farmers were killed each year – giving a total of just under 1 800 during this period.
These murders constitute only 69 of the 20 000+ people who were murdered each year in South Africa during this period and cannot, accordingly, be described as “genocide”. However, AfriForum, which has often been accused of equating farm murders with genocide, denies it had ever done so. In October 2018, it won a Press Council case the Mail & Guardian, which had claimed that they had done so. The following points should be considered with regard to farm murders:
- The farm murder rate according to AfriForum of 156/100 000 is more than three times the very high 45/100 000 rate for the country as a whole;
- In 20% of the murders, the victims were tortured;
- No other class of murder victims was the subject of sustained political incitement calling for their deaths.
Conclusion:
The Executive Order’s contention that “Hateful rhetoric” is levelled against disfavoured landowners is substantially correct. There is no evidence that “government actions are fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners”. However, the failure of the government to condemn hateful rhetoric – and of the South African Human Rights Commission and the Equality Courts to sanction such statements, has contributed to volatility in race relations – not only in respect of farming community, but also in a number of ugly racial incidents in recent years – including Coligny (April, 2017); Schweitzer-Reynecke (January, 2019); Senekal (October 2020); and Brackenfell (October, 2021).
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