Marshall Dlamini, Secretary-General of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has condemned AfriForum’s legal action against the party, calling the lobby group racist.
AfriForum would not dictate the party’s behavior, according to Dlamini.
This comes as the party’s leader, Julius Malema, is set to testify in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday morning.
[RIGHT NOW]: CIC @Julius S Malema is testifying in the Equality Court against Afriforum.
The court is hearing the racist Afriforum’s case that the fight song “Dubul’ ibhunu” is hate speech at the Equality Court. pic.twitter.com/jaUUr4booi #EFFvsAfriforum
February 16, 2022 — Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica)
The court is hearing the matter between AfriForum and the EFF regarding the singing of the “Kill the Boer” song.
The lobby group is asking the court to declare that the singing of the song “Dubula iBhunu” or “Kill the Boer” by the EFF, Malema and party MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi as hate speech.
It is also calling on the court to impose a sanction and a fine.
AfriForum is asking the court to refer the matter to the NPA for prosecution on a contempt of court charge.
Dlamini says the singing of the song is part of the country’s heritage.
“There is no racist in this country who is going to dictate to us how we should conduct ourselves, how we should deal with the politics of this country, how we should sing our struggle songs, how we should do our own slogans and no racist is going to erase our history.”
“All the songs that we are singing, the slogans that we are using when we are doing our political work, it is ours, it belongs to us, it is our heritage of this country. That is what our forefathers, those that fought for the land of this country, they used to sing. There is no racist who is going to tell us and even a court, there is no court that is going to tell us how we should conduct ourselves,” says Dlamini.
Below is the live stream for Wednesday’s proceedings: