In what is surely a ground-breaking ruling around the subject of freedom of speech in South Africa, the words “dubula ibhunu” (shoot the boer) were declared an incitement to murder in a judgement handed down in the High Court in Johannesburg today by Judge Leon Halgryn.

Judge Halgryn declared in his statement:

The publication and chanting of the words ‘dubula ibhunu’, prima facie satisfies the crime of incitement to murder.

This judgement isn’t connected with the continuing hate speech trial involving AfriForum and ANCYL president Julius Malema. Malema sang the words several times last year and firmly believes there isn’t anything wrong with it.

This case however relates to two members of the Society for the Protection of Your Constitution.

One member Mahomed Vawda planned to sing it at an anti-crime march in Mpumalanga last year. The other member Willem Harmse was opposed to this.

Eventually the two reached an agreement and, without much media attention, secured a settlement order prohibiting the singing of the words.

The ANC had then applied for leave to appeal, thus bringing about this new judgement being handed down today.

Essentially Judge Halgryn turned down the ANC’s application, added the words about committing murder, and ordered that a copy of his judgement be forwarded to the Law Society for it to investigate the conduct of the lawyer who represented the two men.

A lawyer for AfriForum, Willie Spies, who had also applied to intervene in the appeal application, told the Sapa press agency that this effectively prohibits the singing of these lyrics by anybody and makes it a crime.

[Source: TimesLive]