Equality court convicts Julius Malema of hate speech over 2022 rally speech

South African opposition leader Julius Malema has been found guilty of hate speech by the country’s equality court over remarks he made during a 2022 rally.

Malema, who heads the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has long been a polarising figure in South Africa’s politics, where debates about race remain deeply sensitive more than three decades after apartheid.

The case stemmed from comments Malema made after an incident in which a white man allegedly assaulted an EFF supporter.

Speaking at the rally, he told his audience: “No white man is going to beat me up... you must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing.”

In its judgment, the equality court said the words went beyond political rhetoric and amounted to incitement.

“Whilst calling out someone who behaves as a racist may be acceptable, calling for them to be killed is not. And calling for someone to be killed because they are a racist who has acted violently, is an act of vigilantism and an incitement of the most extreme form of harm possible,” the court stated.

Two complaints had been filed against Malema, one by the South African Human Rights Commission and another by a citizen who claimed to have been threatened following the remarks.

The EFF dismissed the ruling, saying it was taken out of context. “The ruling is fundamentally flawed and deliberately misreads both the context and the meaning of the speech. It assumes that the reasonable listener is incapable of understanding metaphor, revolutionary rhetoric or the history of liberation struggles,” the party said in a statement.

Malema, 44, has faced several controversies in recent years. In June, the United Kingdom barred him from entry, saying his presence was “non-conducive to the public good.”

The UK Home Office cited his outspoken support for Hamas, including a pledge that his party would arm the group if it came to power, and his past statements which it said suggested the slaughter of white people in South Africa could be acceptable.

The EFF condemned the ban as “cowardice,” accusing the UK of silencing democratic debate.

Malema has also drawn criticism internationally. During a May meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, former US President Donald Trump played a video of him singing an anti-apartheid protest song containing the words “kill the Boer; kill the farmer.”

Malema has frequently performed the song at political rallies, insisting it is symbolic of struggle rather than a literal call to violence.

Afrikaner groups have repeatedly sought to have the song outlawed, but South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that it should be understood as part of political protest culture rather than an incitement to violence.

Despite this, Malema’s rhetoric continues to stir debate in a nation still grappling with the legacies of its racial past.