2022 THROWBACK: MALEMA IN COURT OVER 'K*LL THE BOER'

In this 2022 throwback, we showcase a defiant Julius Malema, president of the Pan-Africanist political party, Economic Freedom Fighters (@effsouthafrica), who was in the dock for singing the song 'K*ll the Boer' in a case brought by right-wing lobby group AfriForum.

Malema (@julius_s_malema on X, @julius.malema.sello on IG) firmly rejected attempts to relegate to the background the brutal history of apartheid and its traumatic effects on Black South Africans, which led to the emergence of protest songs such as 'Dubul' ibhunu.'

'Dubul' ibhunu' in the Xhosa language means 'K*ll the Boer.'

Boer, which means 'farmer' in the Afrikaans language, is generally used to refer to white South African settlers who descend from Dutch colonialists, the group that dominated the apartheid regime that ruled South Africa between 1948 and 1994.

US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Trump's senior advisor and South Africa-born tech billionaire, cited the song as evidence that South Africa is promoting g*nocide against white settlers in South Africa. 

For years, the right in South Africa and the West have peddled a notion about an alleged state-backed plan to k*ll white South Africans en masse. They have used these claims to oppose government policies adopted to redress the lingering effects of the apartheid regime's crimes committed against Black people.

In this video, Malema brings to the fore some of those crimes, including torture, harassment, extra-judicial killings and imprisonment.

With most of the victims yet to see justice for the brutal treatment under the regime's laws and policies, Malema's point remains as relevant as ever three years later.

Video credit: @SABCnews

Sources

https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/afri-forum-v-malema/

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/indian-south-africans-1924-1948-legislation-and-segregation

https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201802/landauditreport13feb2018.pdf

https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0302/P03022017.pdf

https://www.gov.za/about-sa/south-africas-people

https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2022/599.html

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/magazine/men-behind-terror-squad-that-killed-opponents-of-the-apartheid-regime--1315954

https://constitutionnet.org/news/south-africas-president-signs-land-expropriation-bill-law

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/26/kill-the-boer-the-anti-apartheid-song-musk-ties-to-white-genocide

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/08/nx-s1-5290131/south-africa-land-trump-musk-ramaphosa