JOHANNESBURG – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responded on Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s insistence that opposition leader Julius Malema ought to be detained for persistently chanting “kill the farmer.”
Additionally, on Tuesday, a high-ranking politician within South Africa’s government informed Fox News Digital that the chant “fueled animosity” and advocated for “legal measures.”
During a meeting in the Oval Office last week, President Trump showed South African leader Ramaphosa a video of Malema making the controversial chant and suggested that Malema should be arrested.
On Sunday, Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party, which drew just under 10% of the vote in last May’s South African election and is not part of the government of national unity, told a crowd of thousands at a rally in South Africa’s Free State, “I will never be intimidated by Donald Trump.”
Cyril Ramaphosa waves as he arrives ahead of his inauguration as president at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, South Africa, on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Kim Ludbrook/Pool Photo via AP)
All of this is against the background of President Trump accusing South Africa of genocide against farmers and inviting so far 49 Whites to fly to the U.S. as refugees.
“That chant has no place in a democratic South Africa,” the Democratic Alliance (DA) party’s Ian Cameron told Fox News Digital. The DA is South Africa’s main opposition party. They are members of the government of national unity, with Cameron serving as chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police.
Cameron said that Malema singing the chant again this past weekend was “continuing to divide society and inflame hatred and mistrust. (It) plays a specific role in why farm attacks in South Africa are so unique: while brutal attacks continue in rural areas, he sings that song with pride, and many of his supporters openly celebrate the violence on social media.”
Crosses are planted on a hillside at the White Cross Monument, each one marking a White farmer who has been killed in a farm murder, on Oct. 31, 2017 in Ysterberg, near Langebaan, South Africa. (GULSHAN KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)
“I do believe that Julius Malema’s repeated incitement—especially through songs like ‘Kill the Boer’, crosses a dangerous and unacceptable line,” Cameron continued. “Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy, but it cannot be used as a shield for promoting violence. At the very least, there should be legal consequences for incitement of violence, and our justice system must act without fear or favor.”
Ramaphosa said he was not going to have people arrested “willy nilly,” adding on Tuesday, “we are a country where freedom of expression is the bedrock of our constitutional arrangement.”
None of this has phased Malema, who is on record saying, “I will sing the song as and when I like.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Malema but received no response.
Attacks on both White and Black farmers here are real. Cameron told Fox News Digital, “I’ve personally stood in the aftermath of these attacks. I’ve walked into scenes that resembled abattoirs. I remember one farm where the victim’s fingernail marks were still embedded in the carpet from where he was dragged and tortured. These are not ordinary crimes and often include disproportionate violence.”
