Criminalising racism seen as not enough
JOHANNESBURG: It will take a great amount of effort and time to combat racism in South Africa, owing to the racial structure left behind by apartheid. And criminalising racism won’t combat the scourge.
This was the view yesterday of the chancellor of the University of South Africa, Judge Bernard Ngoepe, during a seminar on racism hosted by the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg.
While many of the speakers agreed there should be punishment for racist behaviour, they raised concerns if this would be a viable solution. Judge Ngoepe was sceptical, saying it could only cause danger to national unity.
“Criminalisation of racism will depend on our level of abhorrence of that particular conduct.”
He suggested that racism in the country remained a sensitive issue that was bubbling beneath the surface and all it could take was an incident like road rage involving a black and white person to trigger a civil strife.
However, Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development John Jeffery held a different view, arguing that the intention of the hate crime legislation was to ensure a serious punishment.
“If a person throws a brick at the mosque, we will see that as damage to property, but if someone throws a brick at the mosque because he hates Muslims that is a serious hate crime and a serious offence.”
He said it was important for hate speech to be criminalised, because people cannot keep getting away with it by simply saying they have black friends. “Criminalising racism is something that should be looked at because South Africa was structured on race for more than 300 years. That structure is generally that whites are rich and blacks are poor.”
Lecturer and researcher at the University of Pretoria Joel Modiri agreed. He said what was needed was the reorganisation of the country, with the government focusing on issues around the economy, universities and service delivery. This, he said, would help determine issues around racism and tackle them better.
“We cannot try to combat racism without first addressing the social structure. Black people will continue to be called monkeys because they live like that in dirty shacks, with no water, no electricity and no toilets.”
Modiri said the government’s responsibility was not to criminalise racism but to deliver to the blacks what they promised to deliver – education and jobs.
Counselling psychologist Jeremy Bayer said that criminalising racism would be only half the battle: “You can stop someone from being racist, but you cannot stop them from having their mindset.”
The high commissioner of Canada, Sandra McCardell, said she was impressed with how South Africans were able to address the past. “Every country is on its path not to erase what happened. but to look and openly discuss racism.”