The African National Congress (ANC) launched its appeal against an interdict on singing “shoot the boer” on Thursday, but its call to exercise “restraint” in singing the lyrics remained in force, it said in a statement.
“We find it very unfortunate that when the court heard the matter and came to the unconstitutional finding, the ANC, an interest party central to the matter, was neither alerted nor allowed to make an input.”
The party “restrained” its members from singing the lyrics “shoot the boer”, a chant by a former youth league president Peter Mokaba, which was inserted in a liberation song, Ayesaba Amagwala (the cowards are afraid).
Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum successfully received an interdict from the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg last week on the singing of the three words, pending the hearing of a hate speech application to the equality court, which is due to begin on May 3.
Freedom of expression
The ANC believes the court erred in banning the words in question, “irrespective of the time, place, manner and context in which the words are uttered, published or chanted”. It feels the court also failed to consider the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression, and that any action should have been directed to the equality court.
The ANC also wants the judge to supply reasons for his judgement.
The action was not related to Wednesday’s call for restraint.
“The call made remains in force.”
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema pushed the lyrics into the limelight by singing them at a student gathering in Johannesburg in March.
Debate over whether it is a liberation song that should not be taken literally, or whether it incites the murder of farmers came to a head when AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche was beaten to death on his farm in Ventersdorp on Saturday.
‘Not sufficient’
Meanwhile, the ANC’s call on their structures to refrain from statements and songs that encourage racial polarisation will not address the real problem in the country unless it is accompanied by policy changes, according to Ernest Roets, chairperson of the AfriForum Youth pressure group.
The comment made on Thursday follows the previous day’s call by ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe for the movement’s structures to refrain from songs that encourage racial conflict.
“We welcome this decision and we consider it to be a step in the right direction,” Roets said. “However, it is not sufficient, as it only addresses the symptoms of the problem, and not the problem itself, namely the ANC and the ANCYL’s policies.
“People in this country are not treated as equals – minority groups are degraded to second-class citizens and the ANC and ANCYL’s official position remains that there is nothing wrong with the words “shoot the boer/ farmer.” — Sapa, I-Net Bridge