Teleconference published in
Daily Maverick on 14 February 2017
A criminal
case has been opened against a KwaZulu-Natal woman who took to social media and
allegedly referred to President Cyril Ramaphosa as “an ape
trying to act like a first world president”.
The woman
from Pinetown who posted the comment had since deactivated her Facebook
account. She had not been arrested yet.
Be careful what
you post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+, whether in all innocence or
out of malice, as the post may be construed as defamatory or hate speech.
HATE SPEECH VS FREE SPEECH IN SOUTH AFRICA
Freedom of expression is
guaranteed by the South African Bill of Rights, within the Constitution
giving everyone freedom of the press and other media, freedom to receive or
impart information or ideas, freedom of artistic creativity and academic
freedom and freedom of scientific research.
But what if you cross the
line and directly call for the harm of a
certain group of people, based on ethnicity, race, gender or religion; or use extremely
derogatory terms to refer to an individual, especially a State President, as “an ape trying to act like a first
world president”.
There is a law to prevent and punish
perpetrators of hate speech, the Promotion of Equality and
Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 2000. The Act describes hate
speech:
No person may publish, propagate,
advocate or communicate words based on one or more of the prohibited grounds,
against any person, that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear
intention to:
§
Be hurtful.
§
Be harmful or
to incite harm.
§
Promote or
propagate hatred.
Courts must adopt a
balancing act between hate speech and free speech. These laws are effectively meant to regulate free speech,
rather than limit it.
The courts did not censure the
cartoonist, Zapiro, who always depicted former president Zuma with a shower
head in his cartoons. Zuma first got the shower head treatment during his rape trial in 2006
after he testified in the Johannesburg High Court that he had showered after
unprotected sex with a woman who he knew was HIV-positive in the mistaken
belief that it would minimise the chances of infection.
As Zapiro expressed displeasure at Zuma’s apparent idiocy
- without calling for acts of violence or using grossly
offensive terms – he was covered by freedom of artistic
creativity.
On the other hand Kessie Nair has been
lawfully charged on the grounds of hate crimes, after not only referring to
Cyril Ramaphosa as the “k*****-president”, but his social media posts in
the week leading up to his racist rant encouraged locals in Chatsworth to
engage in “sporadic acts of violence”, with obvious racial undertones.
Whether the state will pursue criminal
charges against the KZN woman remains to be seen, as she didn’t tick the second
box of inciting violence.
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