By: Sello Theletsane
Patriotic Alliance Deputy President Kenny Kunene seems to have mastered the art of irritating EFF leader Julius Malema.
On Monday outside Johannesburg High Court, where he is being sued by the EFF leader for calling him a cockroach, Kunene led hundreds of PA supporters in chanting “Kiss Malema, the sellout”.
Kunene chanted the slogan coined from the same slogan that landed Malema in court earlier this year in a civil case brought about by AfriForum, relating to the singing of the Struggle song “Shoot the Boer/Dubul’ibhunu”.
In defending himself, the EFF leader told the court in February why the words of a Struggle song were changed from ‘kill the boer’ to ‘kiss the boer’. However little did he know that the same song would a few months later haunt him and be used to poke fun at him by one of his arch-political rivals, Kunene who co-founded the EFF with Malema but left a few years later to co-found the Patriotic Alliance with Gayton McKenzie.
In his case against Kunene on Monday, lawyers for the EFF leader argued that the court should consider the word “cockroach” in terms of the history of Rwanda. They further argued that despite the word being used against Malema personally, it required sanction due to it being “loaded with history”.
Malema’s legal team confirmed that he had apologised to former DA leader Helen Zille several years ago for calling her a cockroach as he understood what it was to be called a cockroach by former Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete.
Malema’s legal team also argued that although he once called Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan “a dog of white monopoly capital”, which the court found was not hate speech but a juvenile rant, they persisted with the argument that the use of the word cockroach by Kunene against their client was hate speech.
Kunene’s legal team’s argument was that in terms of law, hate speech “is actionable if it’s directed at a group as per law. It does not avail itself to individuals but is group orientated”. Kunene’s lawyers further argued that the grounds raised in terms of the Equality Act by Malema being ethnicity, tribalism, and political belief were unsubstantiated and had to be dismissed.
Kunene’s lawyers argued that when their client uttered the word, he had done so at the spur of the moment after being provoked by Malema calling him and his party bandits.
Judgment was reserved and Africa News Global has reliably been informed that the court will pronounce its ruling on the matter in eight weeks time.
