South African media reported Sunday that brutal attacks on white farmers have intensified since the left-wing radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party and its leader, Julius Malema, sang a song about killing Boers (whites) and farmers in a packed stadium on July 29.
While some left-wing Western media outlets scrambled to insist “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” is a venerable anti-apartheid chant whose exhortations to murder and genocide are purely metaphorical, some South Africans appear to be taking it quite literally.
The South African on Sunday reported a “sharp increase in farm attacks” since Malema’s big jamboree in July — during which, it should be noted, Malema and his 90,000 party faithful were wearing paramilitary uniforms and making pew-pew gestures with finger guns.
Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, Julius Malema, addresses supporters during an election rally at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, South Africa, Sunday, May 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
The South African Agricultural Union (TAU) counted 35 farm murders in the first seven months of 2023, plus numerous victims who have been “seriously injured and tortured.” It logged 24 farm murders during the same period last year.
South Africa Today reported over the weekend there were “twenty-one farm attacks and four farm murders” during July, compared to 12 attacks and ten murders in June, and ten attacks and four murders in May.
Violence against farmers appears to have intensified considerably in 2023, although it lags behind the worst year in recent memory, 2020, when there were 446 attacks and 77 murders.
South Africa’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), on Thursday demanded action from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and President Cyril Ramaphosa:
The ANC’s failure to address Malema’s inflammatory statements and the escalating farm attacks is a clear indication that we cannot rely on their leadership to protect our citizens. It is time for all political parties to put aside their differences and come together to safeguard the lives and dignity of all South Africans.
Whilst Minister Thoko Didiza is quiet about the murder of farmers and incitement of violence by Julius Malema, we urgently call for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate the potential link between the EFF’s incitement and the surge in brutal farm attacks and murders. This inquiry must leave no stone unturned, and its findings should inform comprehensive measures to ensure the safety of our farmers and farmworkers.
President Cyril Ramaphosa must unequivocally condemn these acts and demonstrate decisive leadership in addressing this crisis. The safety and security of our citizens, regardless of their background, must be at the forefront of our national agenda.
Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF)’s supporters hold banner depicting EFF’s leader, Julias Malema. (WIKUS DE WET/AFP/Getty Images)
Thoko Didiza is South Africa’s agriculture minister. Didiza spoke at the funeral of seven raped and murdered farmers on July 23, before Malema and his followers sang their murder chant, but her remarks were bromides about dialing down racial hatred, rather than the full-throated condemnation of the murderers that the DA wanted.
“As South Africans going through this pain, this must be a green shoot of building a new South Africa, where we do not see each other through race or gender but [as] South Africans,” Didiza said at the July 23 funeral.
In that particular killing spree, both the perpetrators and victims were black, but the owner of the farm was white. Six of the victims were women, including the farmer’s 55-year-old wife. The killers stabbed her 17-year-old son multiple times and then drowned him in a bathtub. Many South Africans enraged by the senseless and brutal killings demanded the death penalty for the perpetrators.
Malema and his EFF were, to put it mildly, insensitive for dancing to “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” while South Africa was still reeling from such an atrocity. The DA pointed to another crime perpetrated the day after Malema’s big rally, in which a group of teenagers invaded the home of 79-year-old farmer Theo Bekker, savagely beat him with an iron bar, slit his throat, and attempted to suffocate his wife with a plastic bag.
Bekker’s killers stole two firearms from his home and might have intended further mayhem, but they crashed their getaway car and were quickly arrested after an intensive manhunt. Bekker’s wife, who survived the assault, was able to identify all four assailants, who were aged 16 to 19. Malema was formerly the youth movement director for the ANC, and his EFF party draws much of its support from young people.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa must unequivocally condemn these acts and demonstrate decisive leadership in addressing this crisis. The safety and security of our citizens, regardless of their background, must be at the forefront of our national agenda,” the DA said.
EFF spokesman Sinawo Thambo insisted Tuesday that “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” is actually a unifying song that should bring all South Africans together.
“There are some people who are saying that this song has basically brought many people together because it just reminds people of the struggle,” Thambo said, meaning the struggle against apartheid in the 1980s.
“No one was ever killed based on this song,” he claimed. “The farm murders that happen in the country is just like any other death that occurs in the country, because the police are failing in protecting the people of South Africa and not the other way round.”
