EFF leader Julius Malema. Picture: Screenshot.
The official Twitter account of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) took to Twitter to share what they described as a “moving speech” made by the party’s leader, Julius Malema.
In it, Malema makes the claim that a “black genocide” was committed in South Africa.
“They are the ones who killed our people, they are the ones who committed black genocide, we never committed white genocide, yet we are the most hated people, why? What have we done to these people?” Malema says in the clip.
He also described black people as being made in the “image of God”, saying “they [presumably referring to white people] love God but when they look at this image of God [points at the crowd] they become easily irritated and they want to wipe it off, yet they call it an ‘image of God'”, he said.
“What have we done to these people. What crime have we committed?” Malema asked.
The comment – which is certain to be seen by some as controversial – is similar to one made by Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama who took things further by referring to apartheid and the treatment of black people in South Africa in general as the “black holocaust”.
Last year in July, Mngxitama included this phrase as part of an opposing affidavit after being taken to court over hate speech charges by an individual called Lucy Strydom, represented by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).
In the affidavit, the BLF leader defends slogans considered incendiary by many, such as “by any means necessary”, “take back the land”, “land or death”, and “one settler, one bullet” as “legitimate slogans” in response to what he calls “the black holocaust”.
The idea of a “black genocide” and a “black holocaust” are likely a response to the similarly controversial idea of a “white genocide”.
This idea, described by Wikipedia as a “conspiracy theory“, is advanced by certain (but not all) right wing groups in South Africa and is also an idea adhered to by some members of the far right globally.
While some, both locally and oversees, believe that the killing of white people in South Africa, particularly on farms, either amounts to or is a sign of the beginnings of a genocide, the term is also connected to a broader theory, which contends that the white race globally is under threat and is explained in detail on Wikipedia.
The dictionary definition of genocide is “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group”.
According to an academic thesis on the OpenUCT website, apartheid cannot be considered a genocide as “the killings in South Africa were directed only at opponents of the regime and not for the purpose of exterminating a specific ethnic group”.
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