The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has condemned the United Kingdom’s decision to deny its leader, Julius Malema, a visa, calling the move a blatant act of political censorship and “cowardice.”

In a statement, the party said it was “not surprised” by the UK Home Office’s confirmation that Malema’s visa application was denied due to his political views, particularly his support for Palestine and his stance on racial inequality in South Africa.

EFF spokesperson Sinawo Thambo said the UK had “effectively banned the President of the EFF due to his position about the genocide of the Palestinian people, his expressed support for the resistance movement fighting against the genocidal Israeli regime, as well as his and the EFF’s stance on racial inequality in South Africa.”

The party said Malema was initially invited to speak at Cambridge University in May 2025 but was barred from entry.

Thambo added that the UK “has suggested that all further applications by our President are likely to be denied unless he changes his posture on the issues which characterise him as a revolutionary.”

He further said: “The UK has declared the Commander in Chief and President of the EFF an ‘extremist’ whose presence in the UK would not be conducive to the public good.

”This country, which has a long history of imperialism and still has the blood of Africans dripping from its hands, as its wealth was built on the backs of African people, has suggested that all further applications by our President are likely to be denied unless he changes his posture on the issues which characterise him as a revolutionary.”

“This is not only cowardice by the UK but also a stifling of democratic debate and a pathetic expression of intolerance toward those who hold views different from the UK administration, including its monarchy,” Thambo said.

As previously reported by IOL, the UK formally denied Malema a visa on Wednesday, June 17, 2025. In the letter, the Home Office stated that his future visa applications are also unlikely to succeed unless he alters his stance.

Citing concerns over “conduct, character and associations,” the UK government said Malema’s presence in Britain is “not conducive to the public good.”

Key reasons included Malema’s support for Hamas,an organisation banned in the UK under terrorism laws, as well as his past remarks seen as inciting racial division.

Notably, the letter referenced Malema’s controversial 2016 statement: “We are not calling for the slaughter of white people, at least for now,” and his 2022 courtroom remark: “I can’t guarantee I won’t say it. I am not a prophet.”

In addition, the UK cited the EFF’s official support for “the armed struggle of Hamas and Hezbollah,” and Malema’s own televised assertion that the October 7, 2023 attacks were “a legitimate act of resistance.”

However, the EFF accused the UK of distorting South African legal proceedings and undermining judicial rulings. The party further criticised the UK’s references to South African legal proceedings, calling them a distortion of facts and a smear against South Africa’s judiciary.

The party defended Malema’s controversial use of struggle songs, including “Kill The Boer, Kill The Farmer,” as part of the country’s liberation heritage,a view upheld by the Equality Court and ratified by the Constitutional Court.

“The distortion by the UK of the Commander in Chief’s principled view on how the genuine frustrations of Africans excluded by a white minority may lead to social violence and resistance is sickening and must be characterised as an insult to our judiciary by a foreign nation,” said Thambo.

“There is no judge of the Equality Court of South Africa who ever asked the President of the EFF to declare that he would never slaughter white people. It was, in fact, the incompetent lawyer of the racist AfriForum, Mark Oppenheimer, who posed this question.”

The EFF said it will not “trade its revolutionary beliefs in exchange for a visa,” reaffirming its solidarity with the Palestinian people and commitment to what it calls the “anti-imperialist struggle.”

“The EFF wishes to state categorically that neither the Commander in Chief nor the EFF will trade its revolutionary beliefs in exchange for a visa. The UK and all of its allies can keep their visas, and we will keep our Africa and our commitment to support the oppressed of the world, especially the Palestinian people.”

“We join the world in declaring that From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.”

hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za

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