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Indications are that Julius Malema and the ANC’s hate speech appeal would be heard on 3 September 2012 by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

This follows after it has come to light that the ANC on the quiet had appealed against a ruling by acting Judge Leon Halgryn in the South Gauteng High Court in May last year, according to which the lyrics in the infamous ANC hate song, “Shoot the Farmer (Dubul’iBhunu)”, not only constituted hate speech but also amounted to incitement to murder.

At that time, the ANC attempted to apply to intervene as a third party to set aside a court order which was the result of a settlement between two parties, a certain Mr Mahomed Vawda and a certain Mr Willem Harmse of Delmas, on the grounds of the ANC not being a party to the particular case.

Media interest in that particular case at the time led the ANC to believe that the settlement between the two parties, which was made a court order, unduly prejudiced the ANC.

At the time, acting Judge Halgryn rejected the ANC’s intervention application, as well as its attempt to have the order set aside.

AfriForum also applied for permission to be admitted as an intervening party to the case in question, but this application fell away because the ANC’s application was unsuccessful.

However, the ANC’s appeal has now created a new situation, which means that the Appeal Court would now on 3 September already consider the particular matter.

It would not be desirable if the matter were to be considered on 3 September 2012 without hearing the arguments of AfriForum, which was a party to the Malema hate speech court case. For this reason AfriForum’s legal representative, Mr Willie Spies, requested the Registrar of the Court of Appeal to make arrangements that the Malema hate speech appeal, as well as the appeal pertaining to the illegality of the lyrics, “Dubul’iBhunu”, be heard simultaneously on 3 September 2012.

“We are still awaiting feedback from the registrar in this regard. However, in the request that all the matters be heard simultaneously, we enjoy the support of the other parties to the case,” Spies said.

Meanwhile, AfriForum’s legal team is preparing hate speech charges against the Deputy President of the Youth League, Ronald Lamola, following a series of statements he made and which were given prominence in the media in the past two weeks.

According to reports, Lamola encouraged the youth during a lecture on “economic freedom” at the Durban University of Technology to use violence to grab land. Earlier, during a TV news appearance, he had indicated that the Youth League could not guarantee the safety of “the Van Tonders and Van Der Merwes” when the youth becomes impatient and reclaims their land from white owners.