South African oppn leader vows to keep singing song that Trump calls proof of 'white genocide'

South Africa’s outspoken opposition leader Julius Malema vowed Saturday (May 24) to continue using controversial chants highlighted by US President Donald Trump during a recent tense meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House.

Trump surprised Ramaphosa during their meeting on Wednesday by playing a four-minute video intended to support his contentious claim of a “ white genocide ” taking place in South Africa, a nation still grappling with deep racial inequalities decades after apartheid ended.

Malema, 44, leader of the populist, Marxist-inspired Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), was prominently featured in Trump’s video. He appeared wearing his party’s red beret and chanting provocative slogans such as “cut the throat of whiteness” and “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer,” a historical anti-apartheid rallying cry.

“Kill the Boer” originated during the struggle against oppressive white-minority rule and apartheid policies. Despite repeated attempts by some groups representing white South Africans to ban the chant, courts lifted a temporary prohibition in 2010, ruling the song was historically significant rather than hate speech. Courts noted it was employed by Malema primarily as a provocative political tool.

Speaking at a regional electoral rally on Saturday, Malema defended his use of the lyrics as part of the nation’s “heritage of struggle.”

“It is not my song. I did not compose this song,” Malema said in televised remarks. “The struggle heroes composed this song. All I am doing is defending the legacy of our struggle. Therefore, I will never stop singing it. That would be a betrayal of the struggle of our people.”

Malema established the anti-capitalist and often anti-US EFF in 2013 after being expelled from the youth wing of the governing African National Congress for allegedly promoting internal divisions. His fiery rhetoric appeals to many young South Africans frustrated by persistent economic inequalities three decades after apartheid’s end.

During their contentious Oval Office meeting, Ramaphosa and his delegation distanced themselves from Malema’s statements, emphasising that his views do not represent official South African policy.

With inputs from AFP