The Western Cape Equality Court has today, 27 August, found EFF Leader Julius Malema guilty of hate speech.

It relates to a complaint laid with the SA Human Rights Commission in November 2022, following the now infamous “Battle of Brackenfell”, two years earlier, in November 2020.

EFF members had protested outside the school after learning that a planned matric farewell apparently excluded black pupils. The school was later cleared of racism allegations by the SAHRC.

Resident, Dante van Wyk, who brought the hate speech case against Malema, was involved in the altercation outside the Brackenfell High School. Van Wyk was acquitted of assault charges against an EFF member in early 2023.

Van Wyk says after the brawl, he was inundated with messages on social media from EFF supporters.

“Many of them were of an aggressive, threatening nature. I received about 4,000 such messages in a short time. It caused me to remove my profile from social media.”

He told the court he went into hiding for two months.

Malema, during the EFF’s Provincial People’s Assembly in the Western Cape two years later, on 16 October 2022, had then questioned why the (white) person (Van Wyk), who had beaten up an EFF member, had not been located and taken to “an isolated space and attend to the guy properly”.

He also told EFF members that “You must never be scared to kill, a revolution demands that at some point there must be killing, because the killing is part of a revolutionary act”.

“The EFF must be known that it is not a playground for racists, that any racist that plays next to the EFF and threatens and beats up the membership and the leadership of the EFF, that is an application to meet your maker with immediate effect.”

Van Wyk then laid a complaint with the SAHRC, which decided to join van Wyk as a complainant.

The Equality Court today found Malema’s comments did constitute hate speech.

The DA has welcomed today’s ruling and commended SAHRC for pursuing this matter.

DA Leader John Steenhuisen says this is a victory for the rule of law and the Constitution.

“For too long, the world has watched as Julius Malema has incited violence, hatred and division, attempting to unstitch the very fabric of South African society. His hate speech was most recently aired live from the White House in a meeting between President Donald Trump, President Cyril Ramaphosa and a South African delegation.”

Steenhuisen says the party will be exploring further action that can be taken to enforce serious consequences against Malema.