DIVISIVE WORDS: ‘We never called for literal killing’ — Malema appeals for farm killings to stop.

EFF leader Julius Malema says the chant “Kill the boer, kill the farmer” was never meant literally and has appealed for farm killings to stop.

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Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema attempted to distance himself from the chant that has followed him for years, at the party’s rally at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Saturday, just days ahead of the local government elections.

“The chant, ‘Kill the boer, kill the farmer,’ was never meant in a literal sense. We never called for the literal killing of human beings. The killings in the farms of our own farmers must … stop,” Malema told his followers.

“The continuation of this nonsense of killing white farmers feeds into the wrong narrative that there is a white genocide in South Africa, which is absolute nonsense and does damage to the good image of our beautiful country. It must stop, and it must stop now. No white farmer must be killed. No black farmer must be killed. No woman must be killed. No one must be killed. South Africa must be a peaceful place for all to live in.”

A chant that travelled abroad

The “white genocide” narrative Malema referred to has been pushed abroad, with the chant at its centre. In the Oval Office on 21 May 2025, US President Donald Trump played a video montage of Malema to President Cyril Ramaphosa to back his false claim of a white genocide in South Africa.

The “Kill the boer” chant has been tested repeatedly in court. A 2011 Equality Court ruling found Malema’s singing of the song amounted to hate speech. AfriForum later brought a fresh complaint, and in August 2022 the Equality Court ruled the chant was not hate speech. The Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed AfriForum’s appeal on 28 May 2024, finding a reasonable listener would not take it as a literal call to kill farmers. On 27 March 2025, the Constitutional Court refused AfriForum leave to appeal.

AfriForum and the Democratic Alliance have been among the chant’s most vocal critics; AfriForum argued that the song is hate speech that incites violence, and that incitement to cause harm is not protected under the Constitution.

In July 2023, after Malema led supporters in singing the chant at the EFF’s 10th anniversary celebration at FNB Stadium, the DA, then led by John Steenhuisen, lodged a complaint with Parliament’s ethics committee. Steenhuisen also wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa asking him to condemn the chant, which he called divisive. The party said it would also take the matter to the UN Human Rights Council.

Police figures do not support the genocide claim. The then police minister, Senzo Mchunu, said on 23 May 2025, two days after the Oval Office meeting, that five of the six farm murder victims recorded between January and March 2025 were black. In the previous quarter, 12 farm murders were recorded, and only one victim, a farm owner, was white. More recently, SAPS recorded one farm murder between April and June 2026, against six in the same period in 2025.

‘Slogans of the past’

Although the courts have ruled that the chant is not hate speech, associate professor at the School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, Professor William Gumede said that while it originated as a Struggle song, the priority now must be to look to the future.

“I’m ... a big supporter of constitutional democracy after constitutional courts, but I think on one occasion where the court erred was on this Julius Malema slogan of saying, ‘Well, that is actually above board because of the context; unfortunately, the context of it is philosophical and theoretical.

“We’re dealing here with real lives, people’s lives, and I mean the slogan really. As I say, it had its context in the liberation struggle, but right now it has caused so much division and fear and anger, and it is dividing South Africa,” said Gumede.

He said no political party or political leader who attacks others will be able to deliver prosperity for their constituencies:

“The only way to prosperity in this country is if we work together – all races, all cultures.”

“The only way to prosperity in this country is if we work together – all races, all cultures.”

Gumede said that despite Malema’s call for farm killings to stop, his speech “doesn’t show any political maturity. The issue is we have to say, ‘What do we want to build here in the country?’ There are many other slogans you can use which are more inclusive.

“We’re 31 to 32 years now into democracy; to campaign on the past means [politicians] have nothing to say to the voters right now. You’ve got no substance to offer to voters who desperately want something substantial… You just become populist; you attack all sorts of people. Everyone is going to dance and sing, or you find someone to scapegoat to blame, and that will get you a couple of votes. It’s not political maturity,” said Gumede.

Daily Maverick asked the EFF, DA and AfriForum for comment, but no response had been received by the time of publication. DM

Politics

Siyabonga Goni

Local elections 2026

Julius Malema

‘Kill the boer’ chant

EFF

Farm murders

Hate speech

AfriForum