EFF leader Julius Malema. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has said it will use the controversial struggle song “Dubul’ iBhunu (Kill the Boer)” as a central feature of the political identity and campaign strategy ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
The party’s stance has drawn criticism from civil society, political opponents and international leaders after party leader Julius Malema said he believes the attention he received from the White House last week will boost the EFF’s support ahead of the municipal elections next year.
Last week, United States president Donald Trump, in a bilateral meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House, used a video montage of Malema chanting the song as evidence of white genocide in South Africa.
Ramaphosa rejected the accusation, stating that the South African government does not support violence or racism, but the implications of the video drew criticism from international viewers and experts.
The president said the country’s land reform process was being pursued within constitutional parameters, and reiterated that there was no state-sanctioned targeting of white farmers.
Despite the discord, Malema has since leaned into the international attention, describing the incident as proof of the party’s global relevance.
“The EFF is more powerful now. Everybody said the EFF is dead and irrelevant, only to find it in the Oval Office,” he said. “Even Donald Trump is watching us.”
Malema also criticised Ramaphosa’s comments on South African crime levels during the US meeting. “If you say it there, they will no longer come to South Africa as tourists,” he said in the Free State.
EFF campaign strategists have said the Oval Office moment will feature prominently in the party’s outreach efforts over the next year. “We’ve turned Washington into our campaign platform,” a party organiser said in Johannesburg.
After the White House exchange, the chant has come under renewed scrutiny from legal experts, agricultural bodies and political parties.
Former president Thabo Mbeki has defended the song, saying it is a symbolic struggle chant from the apartheid era and not a literal call to violence.
He said that such songs are part of African oral traditions and were meant to motivate, not incite. Mbeki said the ANC never supported the killing of civilians and denied that uMkhonto weSizwe targeted farmers, he told the SABC on Monday.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote to President Ramaphosa after the chant’s renewed circulation, stating that such rhetoric deepens racial mistrust. DA leader John Steenhuisen said it contributed to a climate of fear, particularly in rural communities affected by farm attacks and violent crime.
The South African Human Rights Commission has urged political leaders to avoid using language that could be perceived as inflammatory.
Legal scholars have warned that the slogan’s use in campaign settings could test the limits of constitutional protections for free expression.
Constitutional law professor Pierre de Vos said the legal acceptability of the chant depends heavily on context. “If the words amount to incitement to cause harm, or can reasonably be interpreted as such, then it could cross the line into hate speech,” he said.
AfriForum, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) have condemned the use of the song, saying it promotes division and threatens national reconciliation.
IRR analyst Herman Pretorius said the chant, while historically rooted, risks normalising rhetoric that can fuel polarisation and alienation.
He said farmers face volatile weather, shifting prices, rising input costs and crime. “They should not also shoulder the risk that their land, often their single greatest asset, can be seized tomorrow for a political slogan labelled ‘public interest’.”
In 2022, the Equality Court ruled that the chant did not constitute hate speech after AfriForum approached the court seeking a ban. The judgment found that the lyrics may be offensive to some, but they did not meet the legal definition of hate speech under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.
The constitutional court also dismissed AfriForum’s application to appeal a supreme court of appeal ruling to have the song declared hate speech.
Malema has previously argued that the term “boer” is not a reference to white South Africans, but a symbol of the apartheid system and was not intended to incite violence.
“We are not going to apologise for singing a song of struggle,” he said in July 2023 at the party’s 10th anniversary celebrations at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. “It carries our pain and our defiance.”