The Economic Freedom Fighters has positioned itself as a major political force following its prominent featuring in a tense White House meeting between presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Donald Trump last week.
EFF leader Julius Malema appeared in video clips played by Trump during the May 21 Oval Office meeting, where the US president confronted Ramaphosa with false claims about white genocide in South Africa. Trump dimmed the lights and showed a five-minute video montage featuring Malema singing the apartheid-era struggle song “Kill the Boer” and making inflammatory statements about land expropriation.
Speaking to supporters in Kwakwatsi, Free State, ahead of next week’s by-elections, Malema claimed Trump’s focus on the EFF demonstrated the party’s political relevance despite critics calling it a dying organisation.
The EFF won just over 9.5% of the vote in last year’s elections, making it a minority opposition party. Trump suggested Malema should be arrested for his rhetoric, though South African courts have ruled that singing liberation songs is protected speech.
Malema initially responded to the White House video showcase on social media, dismissing it as “older men gathered in Washington to gossip about me” and saying no significant evidence of white genocide had been produced.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Trump repeatedly interrupted Ramaphosa’s attempts to explain that the EFF represents a small minority party and that Malema’s statements do not reflect government policy. Trump mistakenly referred to Malema as a government official despite Ramaphosa’s corrections.
The confrontation occurred as 59 white South Africans were granted refugee status by the Trump administration and arrived in the US last week. Trump’s claims about systematic persecution of white farmers have been widely discredited by experts who note that South Africa has high crime rates affecting all racial groups, with Black people bearing the brunt of violent crime.
Three South African courts have ruled against attempts to designate the “Kill the Boer” song as hate speech, determining it is a historical liberation chant rather than literal incitement to violence. The song dates back to resistance against apartheid when Afrikaner nationalists controlled the country.
Malema also criticised the South African delegation’s Washington visit, accusing them of complaining about black South Africans demanding land redistribution and economic justice.
Ramaphosa was praised by South Africans for maintaining composure during what was widely described as an “ambush” by Trump. The South African president, a former key negotiator in apartheid-era talks, had hoped to reset trade relations between the two countries.
The meeting complicated efforts to recalibrate US-South Africa relations at a time when the African nation faces economic challenges connected to Trump’s tariff policies. The US imported $14.7 billion worth of goods from South Africa last year, making it one of the country’s leading trade partners after China.
The by-elections in the Free State are scheduled for May 28, with the EFF intensifying ground mobilisation under its 2025 theme “The Year of the Picket Lines.”
