The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Monday said it opposed the banning of the words “shoot the boer”, saying they were part of the historic fight against apartheid.
“Cosatu agrees fully with the ANC’s (African National Congress) argument that the song Ayesaba Amagwala [The Cowards are Scared] is part of the historic fight of the people against apartheid, led by the ANC,” it said in a statement.
The South Gauteng High Court ruled on Friday that the use of the words “dubul’ ibhunu” [shoot the boer] was unconstitutional and unlawful.
“Cosatu is concerned at the implications of the South Gauteng High Court’s ruling that the words … are unconstitutional and illegal.”
Cosau said it conceded that if interpreted literally, the words could be seen as promoting racial hatred and inciting violence.
However, it said that such songs had evolved in the context of a society “where the black majority were disenfranchised at the barrel of a gun by a small white minority and their illegitimate government”.
“The words reflect the extreme anger of people who were systematically attacked and murdered by the state … were denied all basic rights and did not have any constitutional and legal means to fight back.”
The songs sung in those days inevitably reflected the armed struggle against a system which was condemned as a crime against humanity, Cosatu said.
“Cosatu fully embraces every effort to forge unity and bury the racial divisions of the past. This does not however mean that we have forgotten the pain and suffering of the past.”
AfriForum seeks interdict against Malema
Meanwhile, lawyers for civil rights group AfriForum and trade union TAU-SA will on Thursday apply for an urgent interim interdict to stop ANC youth league president Julius Malema from singing Ayesaba Amagwala.
The application asks to court to interdict and restrain Malema from publicly uttering any words or singing any songs or communicating lyrics using words “which can reasonably be understood or construed as being capable of instigating violence, discord and/or hatred” between blacks and whites.
In an affidavit forming part of the court documents, AfriForum’s deputy chief executive officer Alana Bailey submitted that “the use of the word ‘shoot’ in the song was synonymous with the word ‘kill’.”
“It is my respectful belief that the use of the words by the respondent is calculated to incite racial disharmony and constitutes a call to assassinate white South Africans. I also have no doubt that who the respondent intended to refer to and did in fact refer to, are white South Africans.
Fostering racial hatred
“Here can be little doubt that the respondent on the occasions mentioned called upon members of the ANCYL to kill white South Africans. The only possible reason for doing so, in my respectful view, is in order to foster racial hatred, discord and violence between white and black South Africans.”
The ANC has indicated its intention to appeal against the ruling.
“We are working on that,” ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said on Monday.
He said the ANC’s lawyers received the ruling and documents pertaining to the case on Monday morning.
Although he could not indicate exactly when papers would be filed with the Constitutional Court, he said the legal team had been instructed the matter was urgent.
The ANC believes the high court would have reached a different conclusion had it consulted the party about the song’s history and purpose.
FF Plus leader Pieter Mulder laid a criminal charge against Malema after he sang the words at the University of Johannesburg earlier this month.
The FF+ and the Afrikanerbond complaining to the Equality Court and the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Tuesday.
The DA indicated on Wednesday that it planned to lay 351 complaints against Malema with the SAHRC for singing the song. – Sapa