Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema, has called for the demise of the Springboks as the South African national rugby team, claiming that it represented white supremacy at the highest level.
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He was speaking at the Gauteng EFF Provincial Ground Forum in Johannesburg on Sunday.
‘Amabokoboko, Die Bokke, Springboks is an apartheid symbol. Springbok must fall,’ he said, adding that he did not support Springboks because it had colours and an emblem that represented and reflected the country’s pain of the Apartheid era.
Congratulations to the Springboks for winning the Rugby World Cup! 🥳
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— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) October 28, 2023
‘I don’t support Springboks. I don’t support the emblem and the apartheid colours that the National Team wears. We want the colours that represent democracy,’ he said.
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Malema stated that he has no problem with rugby but that ‘we do not love amabokoboko.’ He went on to say that rugby was not a white man’s sport but rather a sport that had existed for decades.
‘Our people in the Eastern Cape and everywhere else have played rugby long before these people played it,’ he said.
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CIC @Julius_S_Malema addressing the EFF Gauteng Provincial Ground Forces Forum.
– MABOKOBOKO is an Afrikaner pride, it’s an Afrikaner property – that is why the President of the Afrikaners, Johann Rupert, received amaBokoboko. #RegisterToVoteEFF pic.twitter.com/BFjZq7KS2b
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) November 5, 2023
The EFF leader also called for the national team to get a new name, colours and emblem that would represent the country’s democratic interests rather than ‘white supremacy’.
He claimed that Amabokoboko was an Afrikaner pride symbol and Afrikaner property, which is why ‘Afrikaner President’ Johann Rupert welcomed the team to his farm.
He chastised the Boks for allegedly paying a visit to Rupert’s private farm on Saturday while on a trophy tour in the Western Cape.
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‘I can’t support such,’ stating that he would rather remain with Bafana Bafana until it was brought back to action by his party when it takes over power next year.
‘I am not going to support anything that represents white supremacy, apartheid, and everything that undermined black people.’
‘You can be part of Amabokoboko, I will remain with Bafana Bafana until it is brought back into action by the government of the EFF,’ he said.
Malema went on to say that Bafana’s failures were due to a lack of support and sponsorship, despite the fact that ‘white’ teams were sponsored and thriving.
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Picture: Economic Freedom Fighters / X