The Soapbox | Where South Africans Speak Out

BY AKANYANG MEREMENTSI

The Freedom Front Plus has laid a hate speech complaint against African National Congress Youth League president Julius ‘Juju’ Malema and even called for his prosecution.

This came after Juju allegedly said the boers (reference to white people) must be killed for they are rapists when he addressed students at the University of Johannesburg’s Doornfontein campus, as reported by the Star. “Kill the boers, they are rapists”, Juju is reported to have said at the time.

Hasn’t he heard of some black people accused of rape before (although some of them being found not guilty, including Pres Jacob Zuma)? Or maybe he does not know any of this because he is “too glamorous, too rich… and too arrogant to indentify [himself] with [the lives of ordinary people]” as Jackie Mapiloko once wondered?

In opposition to the controversial remarks by Juju, University of Johannesburg vice chancellor and principal Ihron Rensburg issued a statement saying while the university supported the  right to free speech and encouraged it in its campuses, it, however, did not condone nor encourage “comments that are potentially inflammatory, provocative and defamatory”.

Ihron said that UJ had first refrained from commenting on Juju’s statements until “a number of staff and students registered concern(s) about Mr Malema’s statements” and that parents, fee-payers and members of the general public had also expressed concerns over Juju’s remarks at the time. UJ, as many have come to know it, reassured members of the public of its determination “to uphold [its] values which include, integrity and respect for diversity and human dignity, and which run counter to any statements that provoke racial, gender or religious tensions”.

It was disappointing and unfortunate that Juju, president of a youth movement that should be providing leadership, had uttered such regrettable words. As a president, Juju should have known better for it is ill-informed statements and remarks such as these that set us back in achieving the one human race we envision.

And despite UJ distancing itself from Juju’s remarks, the ANC’s Gwede Mantashe and Jackson Mthembu have, however, continued to defend Juju. Mthembu said Juju’s words had been quoted out of context and that he should not be blamed as he [Mthembu] will defend him while Mantashe on the other hand allegedly defended Juju as saying the song did not “constitute hate speech” and even “condemned opposition parties that had filed complaints against Malema for singing it” according to a Cape Times newspaper report.

Strange as this may seem (or maybe not?) it will not be the first time that Juju is made to face the music over his controversial remarks he’s popularly known for. Recently he had been found guilty for hate speech by the Equality Court after he alleged that “when a woman didn’t enjoy it [sex], she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time [a reference to a woman president Jacob "Love Pants" Zuma had allegedly raped] will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money”. He has, however — or his half-wit lawyer rather — indicated his intention to appeal against the Equality Court decision, according to the Mail & Guardian. Many commentators and editors have since questioned this and found it contradictory and unconstitutional, if not in contrast to the ‘right to opinion and freedom of expression’.

Pierre de Vos, a University of Cape Town Constitutional law expert said the decision [on Juju's hate speech] was wrong as it meant no one could say “anything rude about anyone” while Robert Brand, a lecturer in economics journalism and media ethics at Rhodes University, wondered if Juju’s words constituted any ‘hate speech’. Tim Cohen wondered how such words could have “explicitly [been] intended to do something as drastic as ‘incite harm’ or ‘propagate hatred’.

In his complaint sheet against Juju, Mulder said “kill the boer, kill the farmer” was declared a hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission in July 2003 that he found Juju’s remarks as hate speech which is in contravention of section 16(2)(c) of the Constitution of South Africa. “In terms of this section, no person may advocate hate which is based on the grounds of race, ethnicity, gender or religion and which incites action to cause harm to others” read Mulder’s complaint sheet against Juju.

Juju’s remarks are suspectedly linked to the farmers recently killed in Kwa-Zulu Natal according to Democratic Alliance. DA said the attacks came after Juju’s “public appearance, singing a song promoting the killing of farmers” with FF Plus also blaming the attacks on Juju’s “kill the boers” comments. FF Plus has also threatened to investigate “the possibility to lay charges against Malema at the International Criminal Court, or in the least make the court aware of a growing phenomenon of the victimisation of minorities and specifically the Afrikaner in South Africa which could escalate to international crimes”.

One would agree on and commend efforts, despite how this may be seen by others especially from the ANC circle, by FF Plus in investigating the influence Juju’s comments could have had on the killings of farmers around the country however strange it may seem. This is because not once before (or at least as far as one can remember) has a decision, or rather lack thereof, such as this one been taken at the time when many farmers (white) and farm workers (black) were murdered or  killed. Has race got anything to do with this?

Put mildly: is it because many of these farmers killed are white? If not, then forget I said anything. But these remain questions for many South Africans, irrespective of their race, as there is the impression that it is only when ‘white’ people are subject to these unfair and ill-actions that the likes of DA, FF Plus and AfriForum seem more concerned than when it is black people which then leaves many of us wondering if the life or death of white people is still more important and superior to that of black people.

It was disturbing of FF Plus to launch a “Prosecute Malema” website. Just how effective and helpful does FF Plus think the anti-Malema campaign is? And whoever thought the anti-Malema campaign was in the “interest of all South Africans in general” must be as crazy as its subject, Juju. Or maybe this campaign is ONLY in the interest of “Afrikaners and minorities in particular” as FF Plus claimed in its statement.  It is therefore racial statements such as these that will ONLY benefit a few selected members of our society, Afrikaners and the minorities in this case. And if Juju’s comments are hate speech as alleged by the FF Plus why then resort to the racist campaign and not await the decision of the HRC or the Equality Court whose recent ruling on Juju has been widely criticised?

By this I am not saying Juju is right or anything like that. Of course the half-wit youth league president is very wrong and surely there are steps – like previously done with the hate speech complaint lodged with the HRC that saw him being found guilty – that can be taken and certainly not that of the FF Plus that is rather racist and ill-informed. FF Plus can do better that this for this anti-Malema campaign is not going to help the situation (of farmers and their workers’ murders) at all. And instead, the campaign — a sign of firm demonstration and the ONLY language the ANC understands — will only make things worse.

Aren’t there other means that can be used to “prevent him from continuing with his racial incitement performance”? It is however not clear whether FF Plus anti-Malema campaign will put Juju’s life at risk as is alleged by the ANC. “This campaign poses a danger to the personal safety and security of Cadre Malema.  As the ANC, we draw the conclusion that it is meant to incite, instigate and mobilise some people to harm and even lead to the execution the ANCYL President” claimed the ANC.

And as said before, and also noted by the ANC, it remains to be seen if Juju’s remarks “led to the death of some farmers” as this seem too convenient for both FF Plus and DA. Farmers have died before, and who killed them then if they are now assumed to have been killed by Juju or that their murders have been attributed to Juju’s comments?

The ANC saw the campaign as a “clear deliberate ploy on their side to mobilise the farming community and their next of kin not to hesitate in causing harm to the Youth League President” which could be true.

And as advised before, FF Plus should instead approach the “law enforcement authorities” and report the incident(s) for failure to do so, as said the ANC, will be indicative that even the Freedom Front itself does not believe in what it claims.

The ANC will also approach the Equality Court for recourse on this matter because it viewed the campaign as indicative of hate speech meant to endanger and pose a threat to the well-being and safety of Juju, according to the issued statement and that it had “instructed [its] lawyers to file papers with the Equality Court on this [anti-Malema] matter, with immediate effect.”

And it’s worth emphasizing and repeating that its defence of Juju’s ‘kill the boers’ comments has not helped much too for if this continues, as noted Alex Matthews, we might as well kill all black people, gays and women. Does it really have to come to this because by supporting Malema as the ANC has to date, we may as well be heading to war, according to Inkatha Freedom Party.

However strange this may seem, I just could not agree more with AfriForum Youth that Juju has now become the biggest embarrassment of not only [us] the youth, but also of the country and if he has really broken any law when he called for a person of any race to be killed then we should arrest him instead of being prosecuted (or may be later) — he asked for it mos, didn’t he?

Or rather we let the law take its course?

And while we are at it, we must do away with these ‘struggle songs’ as they can be quite dangerous and at times incite fear among us and a sense of superiority as we’ve now come to know.

Akanyang Merementsi blogs at Akanyang Africa.

Tags: afrikaans, afrikaans farmers, anc, ancyl, da, freedom front plus, julius malema