Apparently, calling for someone to be murdered doesn’t actually mean you want to harm them. Or something.
That’s the line South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is going with after President Donald Trump suggested he arrest South African politician Julius Malema for telling his supporters to “Kill the Boer,” a verbatim call for murdering white South African farmers.
But the Ramaphosa, who has downplayed the documented violence against white South African farmers and claimed there is no racial genocide of Dutch descendants in his country, told reporters during a press conference over the holiday weekend that “kill the Boer” and “kill the farmer” doesn’t actually mean…well, “kill the Boer” or “kill the farmer.”
When it comes to arresting Malema for inciting racial violence, Ramaphosa said he must “take into account what the constitutional court has said, that you know, that slogan, ‘Kill the Boer,’ ‘Kill the farmer,’ that is a liberation chant and slogan. It’s not meant to be a message that illicit or calls upon anyone to go and be killed.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa defends the “Kill the Boer” slogan as a “liberation chant," refusing Trump’s demand to arrest opposition figure Julius Malema for using it. pic.twitter.com/8ZqglpUukV
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 27, 2025
Weird - I thought calling on someone to “kill” someone else was pretty cut and dry.
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Malema has been known to shout “kill the Boer” and “shoot to kill” at his political rallies and events, where he tells his supporters that revolution can only be achieved through “killing.”
JUST NOW:
— Bryton 🇵🇸🇱🇧🇿🇦🇧🇫 (@BrytonsThoughts) May 25, 2025
Julius Malema told a packed crowd that him and the EFF will never be intimidated by American imperialism.
"I repeat... KILL THE BOER! THE FARMER!"pic.twitter.com/ca93PaXOT1
Meanwhile, American leftists and the left-wing media are outraged that the Trump administration cleared the path for a few dozen South African farmers to come to the United States as refugees earlier this month to escape race-based violence in their home country.