South Africa's opposition party to lay hate speech charges against firebrand Malema at the UN
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – The official South African opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has confirmed that it will file charges against prominent politician Julius Malema and the government at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
This is after Malema, the leader of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, on Sunday urged a crowd of some 100,000 people in Soweto to “kill the Boer (white farmer)”.
Addressing his party’s rally to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Malema has been accused of inciting hatred, division and ethnic violence in South Africa.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said Malema is intent on igniting the civil war that so many South Africans worked and sacrificed to avert in 1994 when the country’s first democratic elections were held.
“The first element of our UN case will focus on Malema’s repeated incitement of ethnic violence. The second element will charge the ANC national government before the UN over its years-long failure to take action against their one time protégé even as brutal farm murders continue to escalate in the wake of Malema’s demagoguery,” Steenhuisen said.
He said the charge would be laid in terms of Malema’s violation of, at least, three key UN charters.
The first is the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The second is the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. The third is article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“The DA recently forced the South African government to live up to its international responsibility to comply with warrants issued by the International Criminal Court. We will now do the same to force it to act against Malema. In addition to turning to the international community, we will also file a complaint with Parliament’s ethics committee against Malema, in his capacity as a Member of Parliament,” he added.
Malema on Tuesday responded to the threat, by saying “bring it on, small boy”.
-0- PANA CU/MA 1Aug2023
