US based Pastor Mark Burns, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump believes the EFF and its leader Julius Malema should not be taken seriously and are attention-seekers for chanting the “divisive” “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” chant.
The African American televangelist, described by Time magazine as Trump’s top pastor, was in South Africa on a fact-finding mission following widespread and repeatedly disputed claims of genocide against white Afrikaner farmers.
In an interview in Johannesburg this week, Burns suggested that the EFF is losing steam and is slowly fizzling out.
“To my understanding he (Malema) is a minor character and he is slowly fizzling out. I don’t want to keep bringing his name up to give him a platform but the reality of it is, that most South Africans don’t take him seriously at all, whether you’re black or white,” he said.
“I don’t want to give oxygen to his name to be honest with you. He doesn’t have the steam he may once have had and when those videos (were taken) of him singing that song ‘Kill the Boer’ there were massive crowds but he doesn’t have that type of steam anymore”.
He dismissed Malema as “just a character who is screaming, trying to garner attention for himself”.
“That song is a divisive song and I am saying that as a black man, who is very proud that the apartheid government is no longer here, as a man of faith, anything that will cause my brother to stumble should not happen,” Burns explained.
He said he understood the historical significance of the song.
“Being a black man, speaking from a black perspective, coming from a nation that once had slaves and up until the 1960s the modern day civil rights movement, many of us didn’t even have the right to vote. So it’s still not too long ago.
“I understand the struggle, I understand the significance of Negro spirituals that were sung during slavery time periods as people were picking cotton, working the fields and it was a way of communicating messages between each other,” added Burns.
He explained that some of the songs were designed around killing or about fleeing but they were special.
“They had a significant part then but they don’t play a role in society today. You place them in a history book, you may teach people about it but you don’t actively bring it to modern day society when apartheid doesn’t exist in South Africa,” Burns maintained.
Trump played a video of Malema chanting “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” a recent Oval Office meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, with the US President asking Ramaphosa why the EFF leader had not yet been arrested.
Last weekend, Malema said he would not be silenced and intimidated by Trump and added that South African courts have ruled there is nothing wrong with the chant, which was not his as he had not composed it.
Malema added that Struggle heroes composed the chant and he is defending the legacy of the chant as part of the Struggle heritage.
Burns, the founder and chief executive of the NOW television network also expressed his opposition to the country’s broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) policies.
“Yes, it (B-BBEE) is designed to help people of colour to gain access to equal opportunities for economic empowerment while at the same time it should not alienate other people who also want to come to the forefront regardless of the colour of their skin,” said Burns.
He said he believed B-BBEE is prohibitive to investment and is causing people to revisit investing in South Africa.
“It blocks other people from around the world, especially the US if they feel coming to South Africa will prevent other people prospering simply for the colour of their skin,” Burns insisted.
He proposed revisiting B-BBEE while accepting that “it is desirable to those who traditionally for 300 years did not have access to the opportunities that now exist”.
“Addressing generations of not having economic empowerment and advancement is important, while at the same time it should not be used as a way to create corruption and to keep other people from advancing in South Africa.
“They too need to feel like they have equal opportunities to advance economically in this nation,” Burns said.
Both EFF national spokespersons Thembi Msane and Sinawo Thambo did not respond to requests for comment.
