MALEMA’S STATEMENTS ARE HATE SPEECH: AFRIFORUM WINS DOUBLE VICTORY IN CASE AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION.
The civil rights organization AfriForum was successful in its court application in the Johannesburg High Court against the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to review their decision that Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, did not amount to hate speech.
Judge Roland Sutherland ruled on 14 July 2023 that the SAHRC 2019 finding that Malema did not commit hate speech during a 2016 gathering must be set aside. The court further found that the SAHRC does not have binding powers to make orders or findings. AfriForum won this case emphatically with costs.
The statements by Malema, which are in question here, were made in 2016 during a meeting in Newcastle when he said, among other things: “We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now.” In 2019, AfriForum filed court documents to review the SAHRC’s decision that these statements are not hate speech.
“This is a double victory for AfriForum over the SAHRC, as our position is that Julius Malema committed clear hate speech in 2016, and that the SAHRC does not have binding powers. Both have now been confirmed by the court,” says Ernst van Zyl, campaign officer for strategy and content at AfriForum.
“There is a further success in question in this great victory, and that is that it also sets the precedent that findings by the SAHRC may be taken up in court,” concludes Van Zyl.
