3 days ago
'Kill the Boer' chant is dehumanising and dangerous: Cilliers Brink
Former Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa's stance on the 'Kill the Boer' chant, describing it as 'dehumanising and dangerous'.
The controversy surrounding the song resurfaced after US President Donald Trump called for EFF leader Julius Malema's arrest for chanting the song.
Ramaphosa dismissed Trump's call early this week, citing the Constitutional Court's decision against considering it hate speech.
'When it comes to the issue of arresting anyone for any slogan, that is a sovereign issue. It's not a matter that we need to be instructed by anyone to arrest anyone,' Ramaphosa said. 'We follow the dictates of our constitution because we are a constitutional state, and we are a country where freedom of expression is the bedrock of our constitutional arrangement.'
He said the song is a liberation chant and should not be interpreted as a literal statement of intent.
'The slogan, 'kill the Boer, kill the farmer,' is a liberation chant and slogan. That's not meant to be a message that elicits or calls upon anyone to go and be killed. And that is what our court decided.'
Taking to X, Brink argued that Ramaphosa had a constitutional obligation to promote national unity.
'Condemning the singing of that song as fundamentally un-South African is not a matter of sovereignty, but of statesmanship and basic decency,' Brink said. 'That Ramaphosa has failed to do so says a great deal about him and what he stands for.'
The Constitutional Court dismissed AfriForum's bid to have the song declared hate speech, upholding the equality court's 2022 ruling that the song is protected under freedom of expression.
'It is appalling that our courts have decided to declare the racist death chant as protected speech,' Brink said. 'To be kind to those judges, their estimation is probably that the state is too weak and politically compromised to enforce hate speech laws against the likes of Malema. So they pretend that the singing of 'Kill the Boer' is not an incitement of violence against a group based on race and ethnicity.'
