Judgement reserved in case against AfriForum and Ernst Roets about flag tweet 

4 September 2019

Judgement was reserved in the South Gauteng High Court today, where Ernst Roets, AfriForum’s Head of Policy and Action, appeared in court on a charge of contempt of court.

The charge, laid by the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF), follows Roets’s tweet of an image of the old South African flag with the question “Did I just commit hate speech?”

The NMF requested the court to impose a jail sentence on Roets.

“The NMF argues that they are pursuing this case to promote reconciliation. Yet they demand that a civil rights activist be imprisoned because of a tweet. This action is closer to fascism than reconciliation. There are many crises and pain in this country. However, the NMF chooses to ignore these and to rather focus on supressing civil freedom – in the name of Nelson Mandela, apparently,” Roets says.

It is unknown when the verdict will be delivered.

Issued by Hesti Steenkamp, Media Relations Officer, AfriForum, 4 September 2019