Julius Malema’s Kill the Boer under fire

Ernst van Zyl, head of Public Relations at AfriForum, argues that EFF leader Julius Malema’s “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” chant is a call to violence.

Van Zyl shared his views in a recent AfriForum video, which links the “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” chant to violence in South Africa.

The Kill the Boer chant is a liberation-era struggle song. Its connotations to violence made it one of the most politically charged issues in South Africa.

The legal status of the chant has shifted over the years, culminating in a ruling by South Africa’s highest court.

In 2003, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) ruled that the song amounted to hate speech.

In 2011, after an AfriForum complaint, the Equality Court ruled that the song was discriminatory, harmful, and constituted hate speech.

Malema was interdicted from singing it. However, he altered the lyrics to “Kiss the Boer” during various rallies.

In 2022, AfriForum took Malema and the EFF back to court over the ‘Kill the Boer’ chant at a 2020 protest in Senekal.

Judge Edwin Molahlehi ruled that the chant did not constitute hate speech. AfriForum was ordered to pay the EFF’s legal costs.

AfriForum appealed the 2022 verdict. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision.

The Constitutional Court dismissed AfriForum’s application for leave to appeal the Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision.

The decision supported the view that a reasonably well-informed person would understand the song was a form of political expression.

It ruled that the Kill the Boer song was not a literal incitement to physically harm white farmers or Afrikaners.

United States officials criticise the song

The Constitutional Court ruling did not stop the critics who argued that it was inappropriate in a country which grappled with farm attacks and murders.

These critics argue that chanting Kill the Boer incites racial violence and instils terror in the South African farming community.

U.S. President Donald Trump has used the chant to support his administration’s claims that white people, and specifically farmers, are targeted in South Africa.

During President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House in May 2025, Trump played a video featuring Malema chanting “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer”.

Trump presented the footage as evidence to support his claims that white people, and specifically farmers, face persecution in South Africa.

Ramaphosa refuted the allegations, stating that such political chants do not reflect official government policy or the reality on the ground.

Following the meeting, Trump doubled down on Truth Social, urging the South African government to protect racially disfavored landowners.

He also promoted the Afrikaner Refugee Programme, offering affected individuals resettlement status in the United States.

More recently, US Ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III, also said that he believes Kill the Boer constitutes hate speech.

“I’m sorry, I don’t care what your courts say, it’s hate speech,” he said in March 2026, at the Biznews Conference in Hermanus, Western Cape.

AfriForum’s Ernst van Zyl argues Kill the Boer is a call to violence

In an AfriForum video, Van Zyl said that the ANC’s military wing, uMkhonto we Sizwe, used the chant in the 1980s as a call to target white farmers and civilians.

Due to their isolation, white farmers were seen as soft targets for the liberation movement to attack.

“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard that Nuku Chu, a convicted murderer of a farmer, admitted that his crime had been influenced by the chant,” Van Zyl said.

He argued that the “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” chant did not lose its original meaning and leads to farm attacks.

He also linked Malema to calls for violence, saying he stated that a “revolutionary is a walking killing machine”.

Van Zyl also pointed to Malema refusing to pledge under oath that he would never call for the slaughter of white people. “I can’t guarantee that I won’t do it,” Malema said.

He further cited Malema telling supporters earlier this year that their songs are not just songs, but are explicitly “war cries” meant to educate people on the revolution.

Despite the criticism, Malema has continued to defend and chant “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” in 2026.

The EFF has also adopted the controversial chant as a central feature of their political identity and campaign strategy for the 2026 local government elections.