Below is an article published by The Guardian: 

Controversial ANC youth-wing leader Julius Malema is trying to protect his right to sing the words "shoot the Boer" in a civil suit brought by two predominantly Afrikaner organisations in South Africa. 

AfriForum, which says it represents Afrikaner interests, has argued that Malema's "objectionable utterances" amount to hate speech, and are an incitement to violence against whites. "Boer" is the Afrikaans word for farmer. 

Malema has argued that, in the context of liberation songs, the word merely refers to a system of white oppression. 

The case, which started on Monday, has attracted wide interest among the public, and was broadcast live on television. 

AfriForum and a farmers' organisation are seeking an apology from Malema, and want him forbidden from singing the song in public again. They want him to pay R50,000 (£4,500) into a fund providing aid to victims of farm attacks, which have been numerous since the end of apartheid. 

Malema, who is renowned for his outspokenness, espouses extreme left-wing politics, making him something of a bogeyman for white South Africans. He was embraced by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, a controversial figure in her own right, who sat beside him in court. 

Malema has sung the struggle song containing the offending lyrics on several occasions, and has been censured by the ANC leadership for doing so. But in a witness statement to the court before the case started he rejected the accusation that words would inspire people to hate or hurt white people. 

"I believe that this notion can only be founded upon a belief that the majority of black people are so gullible to the extent that they would simply mistake a liberation song for a call to war against their fellow citizens. I am of the view that at the centre of the anxiety of the sort expressed in this complaint is this unfortunate prejudice."