JOHANNESBURG, June 19, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Britain has refused to grant an entry visa to a radical leftist South African politician at the centre of false US claims that whites in South Africa are facing persecution, a local media report said Wednesday.

The UK visa office said the presence of Julius Malema in Britain "would not be conducive to the public good", including because of his vocal support for the Palestinian armed group Hamas, News24 reported, which has seen a copy of the rejection letter.

A British official confirmed the content of the report to AFP on condition of anonymity but would not give details.

Malema, 44, is leader of the small opposition and populist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a Marxist-inspired and anti-capitalist party.

He featured prominently in a video that President Donald Trump showed in an Oval Office meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa in May to back baseless claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa.

The UK Home Office said in its letter that it noted Malema's statements in support of arming Hamas, which is banned in Britain, News24 said.

It said that Malema had refused at the South African Equality Court in 2022 to commit to not repeating calls for "the slaughter of white people".

"Taking the above into account, your presence in the UK has been assessed as non-conducive to the public good on the grounds of your conduct, character and associations, which makes it undesirable to grant you entry to the UK," the letter from the Home Office secretary said.

The firebrand Malema was seen in the video shown in Trump's office chanting calls to "cut the throat of whiteness" as well as a controversial anti-apartheid song "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer".

Trump falsely said he was a government official, insinuating incorrectly that his inflammatory slogans reflected an official policy against South Africa's white minority.

Renowned for its theatrics, the EFF gained prominence in post-apartheid South Africa by advocating radical reforms, including land redistribution and nationalising key economic sectors.

But it only came fourth in last year's elections, with 9.5 percent of the vote, and has lost popularity since.