‘We don’t hate white people, we hate racism’: Malema’s statement scrutinised in Equality Court

A linguistics expert cross-examined in the Equality Court on Tuesday on her analysis of “hate speech” by EFF leader Julius Malema says his words “emphasised the need for a strong response and commitment to confronting racism”. 

Advocate Mfesane Ka-Siboto, representing Malema and the EFF, introduced evidence on Tuesday, showing the court video footage of Malema addressing the EFF list conference in Durban on February 11, saying he “does not hate white people”. 

Malema, at the time, told the audience: “We must make sure that all the demographics of our country are represented in that list. I now insist that there must be a white person in our list. There must be an Indian person in our list. There must be a coloured person in our list because our country looks like that, and our list must be a reflection of our country.

“There can be more than one coloured, white and Indian person, because for 10 years in parliament we [have not had] a single white person and we’re being accused that we hate white people. We don’t hate white people, we hate racism.”

Dr Karien van den Berg, a senior lecturer at North West University specialising in linguistics and applied linguistics, agreed with the defence that the footage did not appear to indicate that Malema showed characteristics of hate speech. 

She used examples of cases for background knowledge on how hate speech had been dealt with in SA.

One example was when Malema was taken to court in 2011 by co-complainant in this matter, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), for singing an “anti-apartheid” song that contained the lyrics “Shoot the Boer”.

Ka-Siboto touched on the “Kill the Boer” case where Malema was acquitted by the Equality Court in 2022. He asked Van den Berg to give a linguistic review of whether those words used would be considered hate speech, despite the case being overturned. 

“My Lord, I do not know. I cannot recall these facts on cases that I read months ago,” she replied. 

The case is set to continue on Wednesday with Prof Steven Friedman expected to take the stand.