South Africa’s president has rejected calls from Donald Trump to arrest an opposition leader over a controversial song, saying no foreign power can dictate his country’s legal decisions.
Cyril Ramaphosa was responding to pressure from the US president to arrest Julius Malema for singing “Kill the Boer” – a chant Trump says incites violence against white farmers.
“When it comes to the issue of arresting anyone for any slogan, that is a sovereign issue,” President Ramaphosa told reporters in Cape Town on Tuesday.
“It’s not a matter where we need to be instructed by anyone to go and arrest this one.”
The row stems from a heated White House meeting last week where President Trump ambushed the South African leader with videos of Malema singing the apartheid-era liberation song.
“That man said, ‘kill the white farmer’ and danced,” President Trump told reporters before their 21 May meeting. “I think if someone got up and started singing kill a certain group of people he would be arrested quickly.”
But President Ramaphosa defended the song as part of South Africa’s struggle history, saying “the slogan, kill the boer, kill the farmer, is a liberation chant and slogan” that “is not meant to be a message that elicits or calls upon anyone to go and be killed”.
South Africa’s highest courts have repeatedly ruled the song is protected free speech and a historical liberation chant rather than hate speech.
Malema heads the Economic Freedom Fighters party, which won just over 9% of votes in last year’s elections. The firebrand politician was kicked out of Ramaphosa’s ruling ANC party more than a decade ago.
The extraordinary White House confrontation saw Trump dim the Oval Office lights to play a video montage claiming to show evidence of “white genocide” in South Africa – allegations that experts say are false.
“If there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you, these three gentlemen would not be here,” President Ramaphosa responded calmly, pointing to white South African golfers and businessman Johann Rupert in his delegation.
While South Africa has high crime rates, statistics show the majority of murder victims are black. In the last quarter of 2024, there were 12 murders linked to farming communities, including farm workers who were likely black.
President Trump has made South Africa a target since taking office, cutting aid and welcoming 59 white Afrikaners as refugees. The moves have strained relations between the two countries to their lowest point since apartheid ended.
The US president appears influenced by South African-born adviser Elon Musk, who was present at the White House meeting and has repeatedly shared clips of Malema on social media.
Malema has responded defiantly to the international attention, posting on social media: “A group of older men gathered in Washington to gossip about me.”
Speaking at a rally on Sunday, he vowed to continue singing the song, saying: “I will never stop singing a song that Winnie Mandela sang before she died. That would be a betrayal of the struggle of our people.”
The dispute highlights broader tensions over South Africa’s foreign policy, including its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice – a move that has angered the Trump administration.
South African media praised President Ramaphosa for keeping his composure during what newspapers called an “ambush”, drawing on his experience as a key negotiator in South Africa’s transition from apartheid.
The president emphasised his country would not bow to external pressure on domestic legal matters.
“We are a very proud country that has its own laws and its own processes, and we take into account what the constitutional court has decided,” he said.
