* Hermann Giliomee, historian and author of Afrikaners: Biography of a People, said the song was "dangerous and likely to incite some people"
*
Pierre de Vos, constitutional law lecturer at the University of Cape Town, said songs like these were sung at a specific time "when an apartheid government needed to be overthrown. Because we are in a democracy, there is no need for those songs. If you follow human rights, Mr Mantashe's defence will not hold -- apartheid is no more." Because of Malema's history and the insecurity of minority groups in the country, "some people are reacting to the person saying it", instead of what is being said, De Vos said.
*
Melissa Moore, acting director of the Freedom of Expression Institute, said, "It is extremely worrying that the leaders of our country view this kind of speech as acceptable. This indicates a blatant disregard and disrespect for fundamental human rights and the well-being of South African society. "Malema's statement amounts to hate speech, which is a form of speech that is not protected by the Constitution. Section 16(2) (c) of the Constitution prohibits the advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion and that constitutes incitement to cause harm. The statement clearly incites harm to a specific group of people based on their race and ethnicity. Such speech should not be condoned and should not go unpunished."
*
Zandi Radebe, spokesperson for Blackwash, a Black Consciousness youth social movement based in Soweto, said, "Malema's behaviour is predictable." Blackwash condemns any hate speech, regardless of who it comes from. "For me the issue is: Why do we continuously applaud the behaviour of people like Julius Malema? He makes the same noise and we give him the same reaction, I'm really tired of this."
*
Jane Duncan, professor of journalism at Rhodes University, said, "Struggle songs help people to remember the spirit of resistance that led to South Africa's transition to democracy. For as long as South Africa remains untransformed on many levels of the social formation -- for instance, racism or economic inequalities remain -- these songs will continue to be sung, as people take courage from the spirit of resistance from the past to overcome the injustices of the present." "The song as sung by Mokaba could not be considered hate speech, even when people sung it at Mokaba's funeral, and the Human Rights Commission [HRC] erred in making this judgement at the time. In order for speech to constitute incitement to cause harm, specific targets of that harm need to be identified. The song cannot be said to be directed at specific individuals, and in fact, the song is strongly metaphorical in that it refers to the system of apartheid being killed, so the specificity of speech that is necessary for something to constitute incitement to cause harm was absent.
Bookmarks