South African politician Julius Malema, the leader of the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, responded to President Donald Trump’s claims about “genocide” Wednesday by reiterating calls to kill white farmers.
Earlier that day, Trump had shown visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa video of Malema leading rally chants of “Kill the Boer!”, “Kill the farmer!”, “Shoot to kill!”, and other incendiary slogans.
Ramaphosa tried to argue that Malema’s rhetoric did not represent the government’s policies, but Trump countered that South Africa had passed a law allowing expropriation of land without compensation, that it had racially discriminatory laws, and that thousands of white farmers were attempting to leave to the U.S.
Malema reacted angrily on X, reiterating his commitment to expropriation without compensation.
His party later issued a statement in which it declared: “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer! Victory is Certain!”
Ramaphosa and his delegation tried to minimize the role of Malema and the EFF in South African politics, describing them to Trump as a small and marginal opposition party, but the EFF won nearly 10% of the vote in the most recent general elections, making it the fourth-biggest party, right behind the similarly radical Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party at nearly 15%. Both parties call for seizing land from white farmers.
As Breitbart News has reported, South Africa has refused to enforce hate speech laws against Malema.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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