Key ANC figures have defended their youth president’s right to sing the struggle song The head of South Africa’s ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, has taken to the witness stand in a high-profile hate speech trial.
Huge screens have been erected outside the High Court in Johannesburg to allow his supporters to watch proceedings.
An Afrikaans community is seeking a ban on Mr Malema singing a controversial apartheid-era song with the words “shoot the Boer”.
“Boer” means farmer in Afrikaans and they say its use incites racial hatred.
Key figures of the African National Congress who have come to lend their support to Mr Malema have said the song is part of the ANC’s history, part of their struggle, says the BBC’s Karen Allen who is outside the court.
Far from it being a direct call to violence, they say it is a way of commemorating South Africa’s recent history, our correspondent says.
Mr Malema sang the song at a rally in Johannesburg last year, causing a row in a country where racism is still a challenge, 16 years after the end of white-minority rule.
AfriForum, an Afrikaans pressure group, brought the case against Mr Malema. The group says his actions are responsible for a spate of murders of white farmers.
Since the trial began on 11 April, key figures, including ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe, have defended their youth president’s right to sing the struggle song.
“It’s about protecting a history and heritage,” Mr Mantashe told the court on Tuesday.
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