Human Rights Commission cannot be trusted to facilitate talks between communities

5 November 2020

The civil rights organisationAfriForum says that the South African Human Rights Commission (HRC) cannot be trusted to facilitate talks between communities in South Africa, because the HRC promotes double standards and shrugs its shoulders when violence against minorities is romanticised. AfriForum therefore views the HRC as part of the problem in South Africa and not as part of the solution.

This follows after the HRC contacted AfriForum and a number of institutions regarding this state institution’s intention to facilitate talks between communities and organisations.

In 2019 the HRC handed down a verdict relating to a charge against the remark of the EFF leader, Julius Malema, that he will “at least for now” not call on his supporters to slaughter white people. The HRC argued that Malema’s remark was not hate speech. What makes the verdict even worse is that the HRC argued that it cannot be hate speech because Malema is black,” says Ernst Roets, Head of Policy and Action at AfriForum.

“The HRC argues that double standards between different race groups have to exist and that the race of the offender should be a determining factor when questioning whether the vengeful statement is hate speech or not. As it were the HRC argues that black people cannot be measured against the same standards as white people. This is not only being racist against white people because it is discriminatory, it is also being racist against black people because it is offensive and derogatory,” says Roets.

In a letter to the HRC AfriForum requested that they be informed when the HRC changes its point of view to one of consistency, in which case AfriForum will gladly work with the HRC. “As long as the HRC stands by its statement that double standards between race groups should be applied and as long as the HRC shrugs its shoulders when the country’s most influential political leaders romanticise the slaughtering of minorities on the basis of race, AfriForum has no intention of working with the HRC,” Roets concludes.

Issued by Andrea van Wyk, Media Relations Officer, AfriForum, 5 November 2020