Another heated debate that is raging at present is the right to sing the struggle song Dubul’ iBhunu(Shoot the Boer) or chant the slogan popularised by Peter Mokaba, “Kill the boer, kill the farmer”. The issue came to the fore last year when AfriForum Youth, the youth wing of the civil rights group, AfriForum, laid a hate speech complaint against Julius Malema, the president of the ANC Youth League, at the Equality Court about his singing of Dubul’ iBhunu at his birthday party celebrations in Polokwane and at a gathering at the University of Johannesburg.
AfriForum also approached the North Gauteng High Court for an interdict. In this case Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann held that “the true yardstick of hate speech is neither the historical significance thereof nor the context in which the words are uttered, but the effect of the words, objectively considered upon those directly affected and targeted thereby”.
He added that if this yardstick was applied to the words “Dubul’ iBhunu”, the words constituted prima facie hate speech, and he interdicted Malema from singing Dubul’ iBhunu and any other songs that could “reasonably be understood or construed as being capable of instigating violence, distrust or hatred between black and white citizens in South Africa” until the first date on which the matter is heard in the Equality Court.