Ex-mate’s road rage against Steve’s ‘Derby-Lewis Street’
● A former schoolmate is continuing his long mission to gag the “repugnant” Steve Hofmeyr.
Des Bailes believes he has found a route to the Afrikaans musician’s downfall — an actual road.
The optometrist, Hofmeyr’s former schoolmate, reported the entertainer to the South African Human Rights Commission last month for his campaign to have a road in Pretoria named after one of Chris
Hani’s killers, Clive Derby-Lewis.
Bailes told the commission he recently found material that proved the authenticity of 2014 footage in which Hofmeyr held a sign reading “Clive DerbyLewis Str”.
He also said the Prevention & Combating of Hate Crimes & Speech Bill became law only in 2018, and that complaints before that would have been unsuccessful.
“While glorifying a convicted murderer is hate speech itself, Mr Hofmeyr’s actions are particularly reprehensible considering the esteem in which Comrade Hani is held by the majority of black South Africans,” Bailes told the commission.
“For a white right-wing Afrikaner to call for a street to be named after a convicted murderer of a black national hero, who is loved by most South Africans and considered as one of the fathers of our nation, is hate speech, provocative, repugnant and inciteful to violence.
“The murder of Chris Hani is an open wound … and for Mr Hofmeyr to call for the glorification of his murder is hate speech of the worst kind.
“How is Comrade Hani’s family to feel about this disgusting display? My investigation has uncovered that there were many times during the day in question that Mr Hofmeyr displayed the offensive street sign.” Bailes attached pro-apartheid statements by Hofmeyr, and told the Sunday Times he wanted the singer to be locked up.
“Hofmeyr is a fellow Grey College (Bloemfontein) pupil like me,” said Bailes. “He himself has laid complaints of hate speech against others. My aim is to silence this repugnant racist and hopefully get him jail time.”
In April, Hofmeyr posted Bailes’s phone number on Facebook, encouraging his fans to ask Bailes “how many dead farmers will be enough for him”, after Bailes had called for the cancellation of a concert by the singer. Hofmeyr said his alleged offences paled compared with Black First Land First’s (BLF’s) remarks about deaths at Hoërskool Driehoek in Vanderbijlpark. “Prison sentence for suggesting a street name while the BLF celebrates the death of four white pupils? Is this the news you give credence to?” he said in a text message.