President Jacob Zuma has left the door open for Julius Malema to remain in the ANC, provided the youth league boss allows the party to mould him into a good leader.
The ANC also said it would appeal the Equality Court ruling banning the singing of Dubul’ iBhunu (Shoot the Boer).
ANC national executive committee member Jessie Duarte told eNews channel on Monday night that the party would appeal the decision on Monday by Judge Colin Lamont, sitting in the Johannesburg High Court, that singing Dubul’ ibhunu constituted hate speech, and interdicting Malema and the ANC from singing the song either in public or in private.
Speaking to Business Report in an exclusive interview, Zuma said it was not the ANC’s aim to remove Malema from the public space.
“No, I don’t think that should be the objective. I think the objective is how do you help Malema? Because Malema has a lot of elements that are good in him,” said Zuma.
But, Zuma added, Malema would have to watch his conduct if he wanted a future within the ANC.
“What you have to do is deal with things that are not right with Malema,” Zuma said during an interview on his leadership.
“We must help Malema to do the right things. Because if you help Malema to do the right things, you have a very good, potential (sic) young man who could put across things very well.”
The remarks by Zuma are his most candid comments to date on Malema, who is the subject of an ANC disciplinary hearing over his conduct.
At the core of the charges against Malema is his call for regime change in Botswana. There has been speculation that Malema might either be suspended or sacked from the ANC.
But Zuma said the ANC’s task was to help Malema, noting that “the ANC never gives up on people. It has patience. I think what we should do is help Malema.”
Even so, the ANC had to draw a line, said Zuma.
“You cannot allow him to do the wrong things. In other words, the job of the ANC is to help Malema, to mould him into a dynamic, good leader. That’s what we need to do. It is only if you can’t do it, that the question becomes what do we do with him,” Zuma said at his Pretoria residence, Mahlamba Ndlopfu.
He said Malema’s approach to issues put him at risk of saying the wrong things just to appease a particular group of people.
“If you are like Malema, you’ve got to be finding new issues all the time because you get used to impressing people; they must be clapping hands for you, and that’s when you make a lot of mistakes because you say a lot of wrong things,” said Zuma, adding that such leaders harboured a particular weakness.
“Because if you spoke, for example, and people did not get excited, you feel you’ve not done it. So you must be on the border of saying things that are radical and problematic.”
Judge Lamont ruled Malema’s singing of Dubul’ iBhunu was not appropriate in a post-democratic South Africa and amounted to hate speech.
His judgment effectively restrains the ANC, the youth league and anyone in South Africa from saying the words “kill (or shoot) the boer” and singing the song at any private or public hearing. This means that anyone singing the song could face contempt of court charges.
Judge Lamont said white Afrikaners and farmers had ceased to be enemies, and “the words undermine their dignity, are discriminatory and harmful. No justification exists allowing the words to be sung. The words were in any event not sung on a justifiable occasion.”
But, minutes after passing his verdict, ANCYL supporters burst into a rendition of the song on the steps of the court.
“We will never stop singing this song!” shouted one supporter. “We will sing it until Jesus comes!”
Judge Lamont said
Malema, knowing the words would be translated as hate speech and knowing the impact on white Afrikaners or Afrikaans farmers, persisted in singing the song, making him “morally culpable”.
Ancyl secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa called the ruling “an effective ban of ANC songs” and said they needed time to consult with their lawyers on their next course of action.
Magaqa admitted that “it was a hard-hitting judgment, with implications on the constitution”.
“It’s a milestone judgment for the protection of minority groups,” said AfriForum deputy chief executive Ernst Roets.
“I definitely feel more welcome as a member of South Africa than I did on Monday .”
However, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) was more cautious.
“The judgment seems reasonably fair. But it underscores our view that the equality legislation is too broad in describing hate speech,” FXI director Elston Seppie said.
According to the equality act, hate speech is words that “could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to be hurtful, harmful or incite harm or promote or propagate hatred”.
But the FXI feels this definition is too broad.
How does one define hurtful? What counts as harmful?
“We need to narrow the definition of hate speech down,” said Seppie. “This is one of the issues that inhibits freedom of speech.”
The ANC was appalled by the ruling.
“We are extremely unhappy with the judgment. We believe it disregards a part of our history that some sections of our society are not happy with.
“The songs we sing are part of our heritage. They’re not meant to incite people,” ANC spokesman Keith Khoza insisted.
For full coverage of Zuma’s interview, see Thursday’s Business Report Leadership Platform. - The Star