What You Need to Know:
The infamous ‘Kill the Boer’ chant was sung by thousands of supporters during the launch of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provincial manifesto on March 2nd at Soweto’s Dobsonville Stadium in Gauteng.
?Yesterday at the EFF's manifesto launch in Gauteng province, leader of the party Julius Malema leads an anti-white genocidal chant along with several thousand supporters:
"Shoot to kill! Kill the Boer, the farmer!" pic.twitter.com/fN9APPR096
— ?SA911 (@JustdoitZee) March 3, 2024
The EFF has continuously made use of the chant, with Boer referring typically to farmers of Afrikaans descent.
The party campaigns heavily on its policy of land expropriation without compensation, and advocates for complete state ownership of South African land, which threatens the livelihoods of many farmers in the nation, regardless of race.
Legal Matters:
In August 2023, the EFF was taken to court over the use of the chant, with the EFF claiming that the chant does not count as speech intended to incite violence but is instead “non-literal political speech.”
As previously reported, ‘Call the fire brigade/Burn the Boer’ was sung by EFF members, most notably MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, outside of a Free State court in support of those appearing in court over the murder of Senekal farmer Brendin Horner in October 2020. Horner’s remains were found tied to a metal post with a large rope fixed around his neck, strangulation was determined as the cause of death, although signs of torture were visible. Additionally, he had stab wounds to his face, head, shoulders, arms and hands.
According to journalist Jason Felix, the EFF argued that due to the Equality Courts’ previous ruling on the matter, the Supreme Court of Appeal should either fully prohibit or fully clear both chants. Claiming that in the chants, ‘Boer’ only figuratively means farmer, Malema and Mbuyiseni continue “Had [we] intended to use the word ‘Boer’ as reference to an ethnic group of Afrikaaners, then the interchangeable use of the term from Afrikaans to English would have been ‘kill/kiss the Boer, kill/kiss the Afrikaner.”
Farm Attacks and Farm Murders:
In the first two months of 2024, there were 16 farm attacks and 1 farm murder in the country, while there were 300 farm attacks and 50 farm murders in 2023. These incidents are often characterized by extreme brutality, including the use of power tools, machetes, and chemicals to torture victims; rape is also common.
Furthermore, 95% of the farm attacks and murders go unsolved, prompting many farmers to form community patrol groups, as the police are considered unreliable.
In August 2023, during an attack on a couple at a Pietermaritzburg small-holding, the female victim was “beaten with a bolt cutter and lead pipes, and eventually stabbed with a spear while her attackers chanted “kill the Boer, kill the Farmer.”
So, What Now?:
The EFF claims the Kill the Boer chant does not incite its supporters to violence, but there is mounting evidence that many farm attacks and farm murders are perpetrated by those familiar with the the contents of the song, and the EFF’s political manifesto.