Malema attacks 'untransformed judiciary'

Yesterday, Malema, who said the Youth League would appeal against the ruling, went further, effectively accusing the courts of racism after Judge Colin Lamont found him guilty of hate speech and banned the singing of liberation song Dubul' iBhunu (Shoot the Boer). 'The judiciary is not transformed; if that means being racist, so be it,' he said, accusing the courts of being used as a 'back door' to usher apartheid back in. 'These songs were banned during apartheid. Now that we are free, they are banned again. So what does freedom mean for us if we can't be allowed to sing songs that reflect our suffering and history,' said Malema. 'Once again we find ourselves subjected to white minority approval,' he added. Full report on the IoL site See also a report in The Times

Malema mocked the judge's ideas, asking how a white man could tell black people how to remember their history, notes a Mail & Guardian Online report. 'The judge says we must learn new morals - but from whom,' he asked. 'What does freedom mean?' (The white minority) is still in control of our lives, but this generation has a mission to turn things around.' And he added: 'The judgment has criminalised the struggle against apartheid.' The league's deputy president, Ronald Lamola, said it would not instruct members to sing the song in defiance to the court ruling, but that 'comrades will continue to sing revolutionary songs' and would do so spontaneously. 'What the judgment revealed,' said Magaqa, 'is that despite the political democracy and majority rule, the minorities continue to control SA through courts and control of the economy'. Full Mail & Guardian Online report

The Youth League intends to ask Parliament to protect liberation songs, Malema said. A report on the News24 site notes he said the Equality Court went too far in barring the song. 'We are also going to Parliament to demand a legislation that will protect this song,' he said. Malema noted Lamont had misunderstood ubuntu, favoured minorities and given too much weight to the fear of genocide. He had been generous and gave AfriForum what it had not even asked for, by banning the public or private singing of the song. The league intended marching to the Constitutional Court over the issue. Malema said this case, the five-year partially suspended drunken driving sentence for former Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride and the R750 000 fine for rugby player Bees Roux for killing a metro policeman, was proof the judiciary was not transformed and protected minorities. He said Lamont made the finding by himself without consulting him. Malema said people appeared to be confusing revolution with genocide, adding that there was no intention of genocide. Full report on the News24 site

Malema also questioned the supremacy of the law. According to a Beeld report, Malema said he believed it was an 'unfair practice' for a judge to decide something while the rest must simply accept it. He said SA courts did not consider 'what the majority thinks'. Malema said the League 'will not accept' this 'unfair practice'. Full Beeld report

Meanwhile, AfriForum says it will fight any attempts to overturn the ban. 'While the ANC Youth League is still claiming that Malema's inflammatory statements are not to be taken literally, people are literally being killed,' AfriForum's chief executive officer, Kallie Kriel, said in response to the league's decision to appeal the ruling. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, Kriel added it was 'unwise and polarising for the Youth League to continue the fight for the right to dehumanise Afrikaners by calling them dogs and encouraging violence against them'. AfriForum was 'even willing to take the matter to the United Nations' international forums against hate speech' if necessary. Full Mail & Guardian Online report

Is the ANC genuinely committed to upholding the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary? It's a question posed in an editorial in The Times, which claims the scrapping of the Scorpions, the reshaping of the NPA, President Jacob Zuma's recent appointment of a Chief Justice not renowned for enlightened judgments, and the Protection of State Information Bill are manifestations of the ANC 'chipping away at the independent state institutions and a critical media'. It adds that Malema's views could be glibly dismissed if they were not broadly shared by other senior leaders of the ruling party. The editorial points out: 'Secretary-general Gwede Mantashe warned in a recent interview that the Constitutional Court was being used as an opposition to the ANC-led government. Responding to criticism of Zuma's nomination of Mogoeng Mogoeng as Chief Justice, Mantashe said: 'My view is that there is a great deal of hostility that comes through from the judiciary towards the executive and Parliament, towards the positions taken by the latter two institutions. Unless this issue is addressed deliberately, it's going to cause instability.' Last week, senior ANC member Ngoako Ramathlodi claimed that opposition parties and civil society bodies were frustrating the government's transformation agenda by using the 'mainly untransformed judiciary'.' Full editorial in The Times