The ANC says that it is “extremely disappointed and puzzled” by yesterday’s high court ruling refusing it leave to appeal an earlier finding that the song “Shoot the Boer” is an incitement to murder. It has decided it’s time to take it to a higher court.

In as statement yesterday the ANC said:

We are perturbed and shocked by the acting judge’s decision as we believe that he appears to have misunderstood the nature of the relief which was sought by the ANC.”

In his judgment, acting Judge Leon Halgryn said :

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

This was an amendment judge Halgryn made to his original order, that only contained the word “incitement”, that formed part of the judgment that dismissed the ANC’s attempt to intervene in the matter and appeal his order.

The ANC says that it’s not over and they’ll take it all the way the Supreme Court of Appeals if they have to:

The African National Congress is extremely disappointed and puzzled with the ruling of the South Gauteng High court to refuse our request for leave to appeal an earlier finding by the same court relating to the singing of a freedom song (dubula ibhunu).

The ANC had earlier approached the South Gauteng High Court to grant us leave to appeal its earlier ruling that the singing of the freedom song was unconstitutional and fitted the crime of incitement.

We have thus instructed our lawyers to approach either the Full Bench of the South Gauteng High Court or the Supreme Court of Appeals to grant us the leave to appeal.

The ANC also says that they reckon another judge would have come to a different decision.

In addition to his refusal to grant us leave to appeal his earlier finding… Acting Judge Halgryn went beyond the request before him and made a finding that the singing of the song incited the commission of murder and constituted hate speech.

Despite the judgment being separate from the Malema vs. Afriforum case, its influence may just reach right into Mr Malema’s orbit.

[Source : News24]