Edward Zuma ‘does not understand hate speech’
Edward Zuma’s response to an allegation against him before the Equality Court shows he lacks an understanding of hate speech, the South African Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday.
The commission wants the court to find former president Jacob Zuma’s son guilty of hate speech and fine him R100,000 for comments he made in an open letter to Derek Hanekom and Pravin Gordhan in 2017.
In the letter, Zuma described Gordhan and Hanekom as “antimajoritarian sell-out minority in the ANC who have brazenly and unabashedly spoken out against Zuma on various white monopoly media platforms”.
He said Gordhan was one of the most corrupt cadres who‚ like [Mahatma] Gandhi‚ “sees black South Africans as low class k…...s”‚ while Hanekom was a “white askari who will do anything to be an obstacle to radical economic transformation and to defend white monopoly privileges”.
The commission’s KwaZuluNatal manager, Tanuja Munnoo, said the younger Zuma had failed to provide a defence to the hate-speech charge.
“He simply noted the allegation made by the applicant.
“Elsewhere‚ he has labelled the averments made by the applicants as opinion,” she said.
“What the respondent has‚ however‚ failed to do is give his versions of events. The respondent’s position displays a lack of understanding of hate speech‚” she said.
In her affidavit‚ Munnoo said Zuma’s utterances painted the ANC MPs, who were axed as ministers during one of Jacob Zuma’s cabinet reshuffles, as proponents of white minority privilege and opponents of socioeconomic transformation.
“It paints them as the enemy of the majority of the people of this country,” she said.
“It contributes to the alienation of the target community and conveys a particularly divisive message that the Afrikaner and Indian people are less deserving of respect and dignity,” Munnoo said.
The hearing is set down for May 22.