Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has once again denounced claims that there is a ‘white genocide’ taking place in South Africa.

Speaking at his party’s 2025 Youth Day Rally, held at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi, Durban, on June 16, Malema took a stab at foreign leaders who sought to undermine the sovereignty of South Africa and also reiterated the EFF’s stance on land ownership.

He began his address by telling the party’s young members that they must “pick up the spear” and fight the legacy of Hendrik Verwoerd, by demanding a quality education that was also decolonised.

Later in his speech, Malema touched on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ‘ambush’ during his recent visit to the United States, where US President Donald Trump played clips of Malema chanting the apartheid-era liberation song “Kill the Boer” and accused Ramaphosa of allowing land grabs to take place.

While Malema, at the Youth Day event, denied the accusations of calling for genocide, he did imply that peace was conditional.

“Comrades, there is no white genocide. There is no one who wants to kill white people. We are saying to the white people, let’s live together in peace, but we can’t live in peace if you don’t give us what you stole from us.

“That’s what you are talking about, we are not talking about killing anyone,” the EFF leader said at the June 16 rally.

He also defended the singing of the controversial liberation song.

“The song ‘Kill the Boer’ was not created by Julius Malema. That is a song of the struggle. That is the song sung by our fathers and mothers, during difficult days of apartheid, and no one will stop us from singing that song.

“It is our heritage and we will defend it with everything we have,” he added.

Malema took further aim at Trump and Musk, stating they were both “very scared of this EFF”, while painting Ramaphosa as weak for allowing the ambush to take place. He added that South Africa should never be dictated to by the USA.

“Ramaphosa said he will never be bullied by Trump, but when he arrived there at the Oval office, he was shaking like a small boy.

“He was bullied in America by another President, and that President forced him to watch a movie without his permission.

“No one does that to a President, that is the highest form of disrespect. Ramaphosa has destroyed the dignity of this country.”

During his address, Malema also took aim at Musk’s controversial Starlink, stating that as long as the EFF was around, that entity would never exist in South Africa, assuming it still sought to circumvent South Africa’s black ownership laws.

The earlier parts of Malema’s speech were spent calling for better quality, “decolonised” education, with free meals at schools, an end to pit toilets as well as free WiFi. 

The latter, he said, should also be provided at all public facilities, including clinics.

“We don’t want bad education like the 1976, we want free education, we want quality education, we want a decolonised education.

“We want to say to Steve Biko ‘you did not die in vain, the black consciousness you preached in the 60s and the 70s that inspired the 1976 generation is inspiring us today’,” Malema added.

The EFF leader also took aim at the telecommunications companies, stating that data was currently too expensive, and questioning the logic behind expiring data.

“Data must fall! Data is expensive in South Africa! We want data to fall because data is information. You use data to look for information, to look for jobs, and when it is expensive, you don’t have access to those opportunities,” Malema said.

“We’re saying, why does data have an expiry date? As if it’s milk, or bread, data must never expire.”

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