Liberation History: AfriForum's Desperate Bid to Distort Struggle Heritage

Prof. Bheki Mngomezulu

THE recent trip by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his delegation to America produced different results for different people. The official position from the government is that the trip was meant to restart trade relations between South Africa and America. As such, proponents of this view argue that the trip was a huge success.

However, a counterview is that the trip caused more harm than good to South Africa’s global image. According to this view, some of the utterances made at the Oval Office were unwarranted, factually flawed, and devoid of context.

Apart from the questionable pictures of the graves which allegedly carried the bodies of Afrikaners killed in South Africa (who were not from South Africa), there were other developments which happened in that meeting.

One of them was when Agriculture Minister John Steenhuizen told President Trump that the reason for the DA to join the coalition government led by Ramaphosa was solely to keep the EFF and MKP away from the Union Buildings. This raised questions about the honesty in the formation of the coalition government.

The climax of the Oval Office meeting was when Trump played a video of Julius Malema singing his famous song ‘Kill the Boer, the Farmer’ and the other song which was sung by former President Jacob Zuma, which says ‘Sizobadubula ngo mbayimbayi’ [We are going to shoot them with artillery]. 

I will focus on Julius Malema’s song because it is the one that has caused controversy. Even people who are supposed to know better fell into the trap of Trump’s propaganda.

The question becomes: does this song represent symbolic relevance or is it a violation of human rights and an instigator of racial violence?

To answer this question, political expediency and political parochialism will not offer any assistance. Only objectivity, rationality, and context will assist in arriving at a credible conclusion.

Firstly, this is a struggle song which was not composed by Malema. The late Peter Mokaba used to sing this song and dance but he never killed any Boer or Afrikaner. In fact, as he sang this song, no one went on a rampage killing Afrikaners following the song’s lyrics. So, anyone who claims that singing this song is tantamount to declaring war against the Boers is irrational, unreasonable, and disingenuous.

Secondly, there have already been rulings on the singing of this song. Between 2016 and 2019, Malema sang this song six times on different occasions. In 2020, Afriforum approached the Gauteng Equality Court asking it to declare the song hate speech. The court dismissed this claim.

Exercising its right, AfriForum proceeded to the Supreme Court of Appeal to try its luck. To this organisation’s surprise, on 24 May 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed AfriForum’s appeal. In its judgement, the Court stated that “Mr Malema was doing no more than exercising his right to freedom of expression.” It went further to implore AfriForum to see the song in its correct context.

In a nutshell, the Court implicitly concluded that AfriForum was driven by political expediency when it laid charges against Malema, not to unite the nation. There was no intention to get justice. Instead, the motivating factor was for AfriForum to be seen as being politically relevant.

Not even the Constitutional Court could agree with the argument advanced by Afriforum. It dismissed Afriforum’s application for leave to appeal, arguing that the application “bears no reasonable prospects of success.”

Out of desperation, AfriForum approached President Ramaphosa asking him to condemn the singing of the song. The organisation was once again disappointed when Ramaphosa referred it to the courts which had already ruled on the matter.

Given this history, a few questions arise. Why did Trump play Malema’s video singing this song? Was his intention to prove that Afrikaners are being killed in South Africa or was he simply playing a mind’s game to test Ramaphosa’s delegation? To what extent did Ramaphosa and his team rise above such petty politics? Was the President correct in telling Trump that ‘this is not the view of government’ and that Malema’s EFF was not part of the coalition government? Was this necessary?

A nation which abandons its history is as good as dead. It is for this reason that some universities in America insist that regardless of the qualifications students are pursuing, they are forced to take some history modules. This is done to ensure that they do not operate in a vacuum but understand the historical context.

Struggle songs are part of the South African heritage. They remind all of us about the history of this country. South Africa became a democracy in 1994. However, to this day, the song ‘Mhla libuyayo kuyobe kunzima’ [when our land comes back, it will be tough] is still being sung for different reasons. It continues to say ‘kuyokhala uBotha, kuqhume umbayimbayi’ [there will be a cry from Botha, and there will be an explosion of artillery].

As we know, PW Botha died on 31 October 2006, yet the song is still sung in the future tense because it is symbolic, not real anymore. It reminds the nation of what was in the minds of the liberation fighters. Once this context is removed, the song can easily be misconstrued to trigger violence or be regarded as hate speech by political opportunists.

Against this backdrop, the decision by Trump to portray Malema as orchestrating the imagined annihilation of Afrikaners in South Africa through this song was mischievous. 

Trump did this deliberately for two reasons. Firstly, he was playing a mind’s game with Ramaphosa and his delegation. Secondly, he wanted to appease Afriforum, FF+ and the few Afrikaners who live under the illusion that there is an Afrikaner genocide in South Africa which is perpetuated by black South Africans.

Anyone who wants to see whose human rights are being violated in South Africa against the prescripts of the Constitution must go to the farms and talk to black farm workers.

* Prof. Bheki Mngomezulu is Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy at Nelson Mandela University.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.