Accusations of insults, physical altercations and the blocking of court exits became the focus of the ongoing hate speech case between the EFF and AfriForum on Wednesday at the Equality Court.

Members of the red berets were accused of preventing the AfriForum team from leaving the Johannesburg high court the previous day. 

While AfriForum head of policy Ernst Roets was scheduled to be grilled by EFF lawyer Adv Mfesane Ka-Siboto, the interest group sought to present evidence before court that it had been allegedly accosted by EFF members who blocked the gates and sang the “Kill the Boer” song despite it being the basis of the legal battle.

AfriForum dragged the party, its leader Julius Malema and MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi before the court accusing them of inciting hate speech and wanted them to be barred from singing “Shoot the Boer” song, to apologise and be forced to pay a R500,000 fine.

Roets accused the EFF members of threatening him and other AfriForum staff during the hearing and of trying to confiscate their equipment while they made their way out of the court chanting.

“People physically barring the gate and trying to grab your property is the problem. One person put a flag over the face of one of my colleagues,” he said.

Lwandile Ntwenge, an EFF member who also testified, said he was among those who chanted outside the court.  He accused Roets of calling them rascals and of hurling what seemed like insults in Afrikaans.  

“He approached the gate and called us rascals and some Afrikaans words which I would not understand. We called him racist. He took his phone and took footage of us and one person tried to block him but didn’t take it,” he said.

Asked by AfriForum lawyer Mark Oppenheimer to confirm if the EFF members did sing the controversial liberation song, Ntwenge said he never heard the crowd singing the song.

“I never heard them singing 'Kill the Boer'. I heard 'Kiss the Boer' because that is what I was singing,” he said.

Focusing on his cross-examination in the afternoon, Ka-Siboto pointed out that the EFF defence would first argue why a large part of AfriForum’s evidence had no bearing in court on the hate speech case.