A.N.C. Official Convicted of Hate Speech

In a ruling that tugged at South Africa’s racial wounds, a judge said Monday that a firebrand youth leader was guilty of hate speech for singing an apartheid-era freedom song that includes lyrics calling on people to shoot white farmers.

The ruling by Judge Colin Lamont added further censure to the contentious figure of Julius Malema, the 30-year-old leader of the Youth League of the governing African National Congress and a vocal adversary of President Jacob Zuma.

The ruling represented a significant legal test of the frontier between free speech and hate speech in South Africa, one of Africa’s most democratic countries. And in a nation where four out of five citizens are black, it could help Mr. Malema claim the emotional mantle of the struggle against apartheid that is still a font of political legitimacy.

Mr. Malema is facing an internal party inquiry on other issues that could lead to his suspension from formal politics and thwart his ambitions as a kingmaker in the nation’s fractious jostling for position, influence and patronage. A decision on that inquiry could come as early as Tuesday....