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EFF president Julius Malema sang the song Kill the Boer” during a rally in Sharpeville on Human Rights Day. Picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA/BUSINESS DAY
EFF president Julius Malema sang the song Kill the Boer” during a rally in Sharpeville on Human Rights Day. Picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA/BUSINESS DAY

One way to evaluate whether the Kill the Boer song is hate speech is to find and replace the words “boer”/“farmer” with words that refer to different groups, and then reconsider the matter.

Consider words like “Asians”, “Buddhists”, “Christians”, “disabled”, “Europeans”, “foreigners”, “gays”, “homeless”, “immigrants”, “Jews”, “Muslims”, “queers”, “royalty”, “Shia”, “Tutsi”, “women”, “Xhosas” or “Zulus”.

Would any of these reworded songs get the thumbs-up from the Constitutional Court, or be considered hate speech?

Greg Becker
Cape Town

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