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The Democratic Alliance (DA) says the ground-breaking ruling by the Western Cape Equality Court against Julius Malema’s hate speech has set the way for the party to seek for serious consequences against his hate speech.
The Equality Court found Malema guilty of hate speech on 27 August 2025, a case that was pursued by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), of which the DA has since welcomed the findings and has committed to exploring on taking further action against the hate speech.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), noting the judgement, said it is a grave distortion of history, philosophy and the nature of political speech in a democratic South Africa. The EFF says the court has landed on a fundamentally flawed conclusion and misread the context and meaning of the speech.
“The court interpreted Malema’s statements: ‘You must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing.’ ‘This is a war between white supremacy and black consciousness, you must know the two will never meet,’ and Racism is violence and violence can only be ended by violence,’ as literal instruction to kill,” said the Sinawo Thambo, the Spokesperson of the EFF.
John Steenhuisen, the Leader of the DA said for too long, the world has watched as Julius Malema has incited violence, hatred and division, attempting to unstitch the very fabric of South African society. He said Malema’s hate speech was most recently aired live from the White House in a meeting between President Donald Trump, President Cyril Ramaphosa and a South African delegation.
“This type of divisive language is not just damaging on a local level, it has international repercussions as well. South Africa’s reputation on the global stage is at risk when such hatred is condoned or ignored.
The DA will be exploring further action that can be taken to enforce serious consequences against the hate speech of Julius Malema on the back of this ground-breaking judgement,” said Steenhuisen.
“The court’s judgment affirms that no one, regardless of position or political office, is above the law. Political leaders have a responsibility to foster nation building and social cohesion, not to destroy and divide. Hate speech has no place in our society, especially at a time when our nation requires urgent collective effort to address poverty, unemployment, and inequality,” he continued.
