‘Oh come off it, Mr President!’ — Piers Morgan blasts Ramaphosa

Piers Morgan

Cape Town – Controversial UK talk show host Piers Morgan has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for defending the chant “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” as a “liberation slogan” that shouldn’t be taken literally.

Ramaphosa made these remarks during the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium in Cape Town, responding to US President Donald Trump’s demand that EFF leader Julius Malema be arrested for using the chant — citing false claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa.

Ramaphosa defended South Africa’s sovereignty and freedom of expression, citing a Constitutional Court ruling that previously concluded the chant does not incite violence.

“When it comes to the issues of arresting anyone for any slogan, that is a sovereign issue. It’s not a matter of where we need to be instructed by anyone to go and arrest this one. We are a very proud sovereign country that has its own laws that has its own processes.

“We take it to account where the Constitutional Court also decided when it said that the slogan ‘Kill the Boer’, ‘Kill the Farmer’ is a liberation chant and slogan and it’s not meant to be a message that elicits or calls upon anyone to go and be killed.

“And that is what court decided. So they would probably want to arrest people willy-nilly. We follow the dictates of our constitution because we are a constitutional sate and we are a country where freedom of expression is the bedrock of our constitutional arrangement,” Ramaphosa said.

But Piers Morgan responded on social media, calling Ramaphosa’s stance irresponsible and arguing the chant is a literal call to violence.

“Oh come off it, Mr President – it’s literally a threat, and incitement, to kill,” Morgan said in a post on X.

AfriForum, a lobby group, recently failed in its bid to have the chant declared hate speech after the Constitutional Court dismissed their appeal.

Meanwhile, Malema, addressing supporters, rejected Trump’s comments and stood by the chant, insisting it is part of the historical struggle and protected by freedom of speech.

Speaking at a regional election this past weekend, Malema said the controversial lyrics were “the heritage of our struggle” and vowed to keep on using them.

“It is not my song. I did not compose this song,” Malema said in televised comments. “The struggle heroes composed this song. All I am doing it to defend the legacy of our struggle.”

“Therefore I will never stop singing” the song, he said. “That will be a betrayal to the struggle of our people.”

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