Who is Julius Malema, the South African politician behind 'kill the farmer' chant?

JOHANNESBURG - Julius Malema, the South African politician who President Donald Trump wants arrested for repeatedly chanting "kill the farmer," is reportedly a Rolex watch-wearing Gucci revolutionary, often seen in snazzy, expensive clothes, who champions the poor from a luxury mansion in what is said to be South Africa's richest street. 

He has also called for the further arming of the terror group Hamas and has been accused of stealing millions of dollars from the very pensioners he is trying to get to vote for him.

Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a video of Malema shouting "Shoot to kill, Kill the Boer (the Afrikaner), kill the farmer," when the South African president, a neighbor of Malema's in Johannesburg, visited the Oval Office earlier this month. 

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Trump has offered Afrikaner farmers, descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, refuge in the U.S., citing controversial and disputed claims that they are facing White genocide and forced land seizures.

The self-styled commander in chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Party, Malema, a Marxist-Leninist, was the head of the Youth League of South Africa's biggest party, the African National Congress (ANC), but he was kicked out for bad-mouthing its leadership.

In last year's election, votes for the EFF slumped to under 10%, and both of Malema's sidekicks, party co-founders and men he described as "brothers," left him and joined a competing party.

So it did not come as a surprise to many that, allegedly to spite President Trump, Malema just days later jumped up, literally, onto the stage at the very next rally he was due to appear at to yell "Kill the farmer, I repeat kill the farmer."

In 2022, South Africa's Constitutional Court, the equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled the chant is not hate speech, declaring it is only the words of a song. Malema sits on the Judicial Services Commission, a body which appoints the Court's judges.

To Malema, critics say, the chant may be more than just song lyrics. At least twice he told reporters here, "We have not called for the killing of White people - at least for now." On another occasion, he demanded, "We will cut the throat of Whiteness."

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Some say Malema is running two strategies - one which follows the mantra "There's no such thing as bad publicity," and the other to act like a small child that makes a lot of noise, hoping to be noticed, but with little real effect. 

Analyst J. Brooks Spector told Fox News Digital that Malema "has crafted a political reputation as the 'bad boy' of South African politics."

Spector, a former U.S. diplomat who lives in Johannesburg and is associate editor of the Daily Maverick, continued. "In a country with a third of its workforce unemployed, and higher among young people, and poverty still a fact of life for many more, his (Malema's) populism initially drew significant support and enthusiasm among voters. However, his popularity as a political leader has faded somewhat."

Malema openly supports the terror group Hamas, telling a rally in 2023, shortly after the October 7 attack on Israel, "when you are oppressed, you only have one option, shoot to kill. There is nothing wrong with what Hamas is doing. The EFF is going to arm Hamas." He also shouted he intended to shut down the Israeli Embassy in South Africa. "We are going to remove this embassy," he yelled to loud cheers.

Allegations also suggest that Malema and his then right-hand man, Floyd Shivambu, benefitted from "dodgy" deals with the South African VBS bank, which subsequently collapsed, leading to people losing their pension savings. 

"In 2018, the VBS scandal exposed widespread looting by bank officials and politicians, including senior leaders of the EFF, Floyd Shivambu and Julius Malema," the Opposition Democratic Alliance's (DA) Baxolile Nodada stated last August. 

On Friday, the DA's federal executive member and national spokesperson, Willie Aucamp, told Fox News Digital the DA "isn't letting the VBS scandal fade into the background. Not when over R2 billion ($111 million) was looted from pensioners, struggling municipalities, and poor communities. The DA has been leading the charge to expose those behind this daylight robbery, including Julius Malema, leader of the EFF." 

He continued, "The DA laid criminal charges back in 2018, but six years later, not a single charge has been prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Justice for the victims of VBS is long overdue. The DA will continue pushing for the arrest and prosecution of every single person involved - Malema included."

Speaking in Cape Town in July last year, Malema said "I will never be intimidated by VBS. No leader of the EFF received VBS money."

But now that Malema is on Donald Trump's radar, the president might push back powerfully on Malema's links to Hamas and the VBS saga, Max Meizlish, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. 

"Like the ANC that courts Iran and supports Hamas, Julius Malema would be wise to not provoke Donald Trump. After all, Malema was clearly implicated in the VBS scandal and has openly called to "arm Hamas." Malema could very well find himself the target of Global Magnitsky Act sanctions - a tool which President Trump can wield unilaterally and at a moment's notice," Meizlish said.