When anyone says or sings that people of a certain group should be shot or killed, it will always amount to hate speech, and be divisive and absolutely unacceptable, especially in a country where racial tension is already running high.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) strongly condemns the singing of the so-called struggle song “Kill the Boer” and shares the public’s frustration with the country’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) and government’s silence on the matter. A song like that has no place in South Africa.
A threat is surely measured against how serious and dangerous the receiver perceives it to be.
The country’s history of farm murders leaves no room for doubt about how real these threats are, and that white people view them as very serious and degrading.
Clearly the American government sees it in the same way. America’s Minister of Foreign affairs, Marco Rubio, said on social media earlier this week that “Kill the Boer” incites violence, and that the South African government should “take steps” to protect Afrikaners and other minorities.
His post was in response to Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, singing the song with his supporters on Human Rights Day in Sharpeville, Soweto.
President Cyril Ramaphosa only broke his silence to criticise AfriForum and Solidarity for their “unpatriotic” conduct of engaging in talks with American state spokespeople, urging them to maintain “unity” in South Africa.
One-sided unity will not work. Especially not in South Africa. Both sides need to reach out to one another. Singing “Kill the Boer” is certainly not a gesture of “unity”.
The ANC is deluded to pretend that the international community and America’s attitude towards South Africa springs from recent events. It does not.
Over the years, the Freedom Front Plus has seized every opportunity to raise international awareness of the abuses and what is happening in South Africa, such as farm murders and looming expropriation. At the United Nations (UN) as well.
The ANC’s own conduct and foreign policy, among other things, made America draw the line.
President Ramaphosa’s silence on an issue causing significant division by essentially calling on one part of the population to commit genocide by murdering another group of people speaks much louder than words.
If he were serious about achieving unity, he would have condemned the song, regardless of where it comes from or how it is interpreted by the courts and the HRC. He is the President of everyone in this country.
