UK denies SA leader visa over ‘extremist’ views

The UK has refused to grant Economic Freedom Fighter's (EFF) leader Julius Malema from South Africa a visa due to his ‘extremism’, which that country said includes his support for Hamas and a call to ‘slaughter white people’, reports News24. The UK Home Office Secretary said Malema’s presence in the UK was not conducive to the public good. This is Malema’s second unsuccessful attempt to visit the UK. The UK’s Home Office told the firebrand leader future applications were also unlikely to succeed. ‘In relation to this decision, there is no right of appeal or right to administrative review.’ The Home Office Secretary said while Malema has previously held visas to travel to the UK, after reviewing his latest visa application, the authorities noticed his support for Hamas – an organisation which is considered a terrorist group and is forbidden in the UK – and his call for the slaughter of whiteness. Malema has previously stated that ‘cutting the throat of whiteness’ refers to a system of white supremacy and not white people. The Home Office said: '... you state that Hamas had no option but to fight for their freedom. Additionally, in October 2023 you posted on the EFF’s X site in relation to the events on October the 7th that there is nothing wrong Hamas (sic) did'. It added: ‘In April 2024, the EFF, the political party which you lead, posted on X that the "Palestinian people have the fullest right to take up arms against apartheid Israel, and that the EFF supports the armed struggle of Hamas and Hezbollah".’

Following the decision, the EFF accused British authorities of stifling democratic debate, and likenened that country to an ‘intolerant bully’ imposing its views on the world without challenge. According to News24, Malema applied for a visa to deliver a lecture at Cambridge University at the invitation of students in April. The application was initially declined last month, with British authorities saying it could not be processed in time due to the necessary steps required to consider visa applications. In a statement, EFF national spokesperson Sinawo Thambo said: ‘The UK Home Office went as far as extending an apology for what it knew was a political ban that was being hidden under challenges of administration.’ He added: 'The distortion by the UK of Malema’s principled view on how the genuine frustrations of Africans, who are excluded at the behest of a white minority, may lead to social violence and resistance, is sickening and must be characterised as an insult to our judiciary by a foreign nation. The very same Equality Court, which the UK Home Office quotes in its letter, found the CIC (commander in chief) expressed no intention to slaughter white people and the singing of “kill the boer, kill the farmer” cannot be interpreted as a literal call for genocide, but an expression of liberation heritage.’ Thambo said the EFF would not trade its revolutionary beliefs in exchange for a visa.

First News24 report

Second News24 report