The SAJBD welcomes today’s Constitutional Court judgement confirming that Bongani Masuku apologise for his remarks against Jewish community in 2009
16 February 2022
The SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) welcomes today’s Constitutional Court judgment confirming that COSATU International Relations Secretary Bongani Masuku must apologise for offensive and inflammatory remarks he made against the Jewish community in 2009. The ruling substantially upholds the conclusions reached initially by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and thereafter by the Equality Court that Masuku was guilty of contravening s10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 (PEPUDA). The SAHRC found Masuku’s statements to have been of “an extreme nature that advocate and imply that the Jewish and Israeli community are to be despised, scorned, ridiculed and thus subjecting them to ill-treatment on the basis of their religious affiliation”, and accordingly as being “offensive and unpalatable to society”.
The following statement by Masuku was found by the Constitutional Court to be in contravention of s10 of PEPUDA:
Bongani says hi to you all as we struggle to liberate Palestine from the racists, fascists and zionists who belong to the era of their Friend Hitler! We must not apologise, every Zionist must be made to drink the bitter medicine they are feeding our brothers and sisters in Palestine. We must target them, expose them and doo all that (sic) is needed to subject them to perpetual suffering until they withdraw from the land of others and stop their savage attacks on human dignity
The SAJBD is of the view that since the great majority of Jews in South Africa, as demonstrated by credible academic surveys, support and identify with Israel, Masuku’s threatening and offensive comments in practice target the Jewish community. However, we respect the conclusion of the Constitutional Court that other impugned statements by Masuku, while “inflammatory” and “seditious”, would on the balance of probability not be considered by a reasonable person to be aimed at Jews specifically, but rather at Israel and those who supported it.