With no local satisfaction for AfriForum in its legal fight against the “Kill the Boer” chant, the lobby group is taking its fight overseas, in the hope that it can find international platforms through which it can continue its legal action.
The organisation lost its appeal in the Constitutional Court to have the chant declared hate speech.
Just this week, AfriForum urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to publicly condemn the anti-apartheid “Kill the Boer” chant, recently sung by Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema during a Human Rights Day Commemoration in Sharpeville.
Following that, AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel posted on X.
“As President @realDonaldTrump would say: 'VERY BAD' things are happening in South Africa. Today, the chant 'Kill the Boer, kill the farmer,' which targets Afrikaners and farmers, was once again sung in South Africa. @PresidencyZA Ramaphosa and other senior ANC leaders were, as always, silent—once again giving it tacit support by not condemning it. Ironically, this happened today, a day officially recognised as Human Rights Day in South Africa.”
He also tagged US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and South African-born American political commentator Joel Pollak on the post, this as tensions heighten between the US and South Africa over South Africa’s land policies, it's economic redress laws and its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
AfriForum, meanwhile, has come under fire for allegedly stoking the tensions between the US and South Africa and for causing social division, which the organisation denies.
“The internationalisation of the fight against calls for violence against Afrikaners and farmers, as demonstrated by the chanting of ‘Kill the Boer', is a next logical step, given the clear lack of protection of Afrikaner human rights by the Constitutional Court and the South African Constitution. The chant has already attracted international attention this past week after the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, expressed his dissatisfaction with it,” said Kriel.
He said taking the issue international would also draw attention from international authorities and opinion leaders to what AfriForum believes is an encouragement to murder Afrikaners and farmers.
Th organisation said it would expand its 177 neighbourhood and farm watches.
“If the authorities do not want to protect us, we will continue to protect ourselves. We will never accept that calls for violence against our communities are legal, and therefore we will fight it at every possible level with everything we have,” Kriel said.
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