A “disgusted” African National Congress Youth League has accused AfriForum of spreading lies, after the agricultural organisation claimed it had received an email from the youth league suggesting an out of court settlement in the “Shoot the boer” hate speech case it has brought against youth league President Julius Malema.
But AfriForum hit back, saying that the youth league was at war with itself.
“It appears that the Youth League is now at war with itself. [On Tuesday] Julius Malema said publicly that they instructed their lawyers to engage with us on possible solutions to the dispute. [On Wednesday] Floyd Shivambu accuses AfriForum for ‘spreading stories’ that originated from Malema,” said AfriForum lawyer Willie Spies.
“AfriForum has never issued a statement and merely responded to questions that were addressed to it as a result of Julius Malema’s SABC interview.
The youth league had earlier accused AfriForum of being “lame liars”.
“The ANC Youth League has noted that the right-wing organisation AfriForum is spreading lies that the legal representatives of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema have approached them for an out of court settlement,” youth league spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said.
“The ANC Youth League never approached AfriForum and will never do so, because we are not the ones who have a problem with the song they believe constitutes hate speech.”
‘Shoot the boer’
AfriForum and the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (Tau-SA) have taken Malema to the Equality Court, which has been convening at the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, in the hopes of stopping him from singing lyrics from the Zulu song Ayesaba Amagwala, translated as “The cowards are scared”, which contain the lyrics “dubul’ ibhunu”, or “shoot the boer”.
The organisation said it found some of the translations to English threatening to farmers and Afrikaners.
AfriForum’s lawyer Willie Spies said on Tuesday that the lobby group had received an email from Malema’s lawyers about the possibility of a settlement.
“We received an email from them inviting us to make suggestions,” said Willie Spies.
“Obviously, if we can achieve with an agreement something similar or better than a favourable court order then we would love to discuss that with them,” he said.
Confidence
However, AfriForum was still preparing for the trial and was confident that it would be successful.
“We believe we are in a strong position,” he said.
Shivambu on Wednesday said the youth league had more than once said their “gates are open to even right-wing formations” to discuss any issues related to nation building.
“Thus far, the ANC Youth League is not aware whether the right-wing formations that took us to court want to talk or not, because their witnesses said something else and counsel said something else contradictory.
“Now that AfriForum realises they will not succeed in banning revolutionary songs and declaring them hate speech, they send confusing signals and messages that are pure lies,” said Shivambu.
Lame
He said the ANCYL was “disgusted by this lame strategy”.
“As far as we are concerned, the arguments for the case will be on May 19 2011 and the legal team is busy working on argument before the court passes judgment. We appeal to AfriForum to immediately stop spreading lies and wait for the court proceedings to conclude, because they do not seem to know what they want.”
Malema and ANC representatives, including the party’s secretary general Gwede Mantashe, have told the court the lyrics were from a song from the struggle against apartheid. It was sung now as part of the ongoing battle against economic oppression.
On Tuesday, Malema told SABC radio news that he was willing to discuss the possibility of reaching an out of court settlement.
“The settling of the matter out of court is possible and that is what we have always called for,” he said.
“But that matter will not need a once-off meeting. It’s a societal engagement. It’s a social issue.”
Closing argument for Malema’s hate speech trial begins on May 19, the day after the local government elections.
Spies could not be immediately reached on Wednesday for comment on Shivambu’s latest statement. — Sapa and M&G