AfriForum directs open letter to the South African Human Rights Commission: “Minorities are starting to lose faith in the SAHRC”

31 July 2015

AfriForum requested the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in an open letter to speak out stronger against hate speech that is committed against minority communities on social media. In the past year, the civil rights watchdog saw an increase in hate speech on social media, but is experiencing that the SAHRC is not fulfilling its mandate to address this phenomenon.

In a recent incident, someone - who falsely claimed to be an employee of a well-known private security company - said on Facebook that the time has come to murder white people, particularly farmers.

In the letter to the Chairperson of the SAHRC, Adv Lawrence Mushwana, Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum, expressed his concern regarding the organisation’s observation that the SAHRC frequently takes steps on own accord to address hate speech against black people, but doesn’t really pay attention to hate speech committed against minority communities, even if the Commission is requested in writing to do so.  

Text of the letter:

31 July 2015

Letter to the Chairperson

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) Adv Lawrence Mushwana

Dear Adv Mushwana,

LACK OF ACTION TO ADDRESS INCITEMENT AND HATE SPEECH AGAINST MINORITY COMMUNITIES

I write this open letter to you in the light of a very disturbing trend that AfriForum has witnessed during more or less the last year. It appears to us that there is an upward surge of hate speech and incitement to murder on social media in South Africa. In an alarming amount of cases, this hate speech is directed against minority communities and in particular South African farmers.

Attached to this letter are several recent examples. In one  particular perturbing example, a man – who falsely claimed to be an employee of a prestigious private security company - agreed with his friends on Facebook that the time has come for white people in general, but farmers in particular, to be wiped-out.

Furthermore, as an organisation established with the aim of protecting the rights of minority communities, we are concerned about what appears to us as an unbalanced approach by the SAHRC. In recent years we have witnessed several interventions by the SAHRC to curb hate speech or violence committed by members of minority communities against black South Africans. Intervention by the SAHRC on own accord should be applauded. However, what we are concerned about is the fact that the SAHRC appears hesitant to tackle cases where violence or hate speech is committed against minority communities.