THE SAHRC’S LATEST FINDING ON JULIUS MALEMA
It is with the greatest concern that the FW de Klerk Foundation notes the 8 March 2019 finding of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in which it dismisses the Foundation’s complaint of November 2016 against Julius Malema. The Foundation lodged a complaint against Malema regarding a statement that he had made outside the Newcastle Magistrate Court, in which he had said, inter alia, that “…White people found peaceful Africans here. They killed them. They slaughtered them like animals. We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now. What we are calling for is the peaceful occupation of land and we don’t owe anyone an apology for that.”
The SAHRC found that this did not constitute hate speech. In its view, “a determination of hate speech in this case hinges on whether the addition of ‘at least for now’ to the statement that Mr Malema is ‘not calling for the slaughter of white people’ can be reasonably construed to demonstrate a clear intention to incite harm at some indeterminate time in the future. Such incitement is not ‘imminent’ as per the language of section 16(2)(c) of the Constitution or foreseen at the time when the utterances are made. Moreover, viewed in its context, the statement deals with the subject matter of land dispossession and redistribution, and is not aimed at inciting harm to white people.”
The SAHRC brushed aside the truly chilling implication that Malema might call for the slaughter of white people at some later stage. Also, his highly prejudicial version of history that “white people” slaughtered peaceful Africans “like animals” was clearly intended to sweep up racial hatred. His words, by his own admission, also constituted incitement to cause harm. Does the SAHRC really think that the illegal occupation of the land of white farmers could be achieved without causing them ‘harm’?
The very notion that the leader of a major political party in a multi-racial country can say that he is not calling for the slaughter of another ethnic group - “at least for now” - constitutes not only hate speech, but verges on advocacy of genocide at some future date.
The definition of genocide in the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), to which South Africa is a party, includes “…acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national ethnic racial or religious group.”