K-word case set to make history
Landmark ruling in dispute between two black men
TWO prominent businessmen will go head-to-head in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court tomorrow in a case that is expected to lead to a landmark ruling on racism between two black men.
The recently appointed chief executive of Investec, Fani Titi, has brought a case of crimen injuria against his former business associate Peterpaul Ngwenya, who allegedly called him the k-word.
They were reportedly embroiled in a messy fight over R54 million which was allegedly owed to Ngwenya by Titi in a business deal for their radio stations Gagasi, Kaya and Heart FM.
Titi reportedly first obtained a protection order against Ngwenya and then pursued a case of crimen injuria after Ngwenya allegedly sent him and others a text message and referred to him as a “Qwaqwa k ***** ”.
This crimen injuria case follows the widely reported case of Vicki Momberg, who was recently sent to prison for three years after she was found guilty of racism.
Momberg was caught on video in 2016 using the k-word 48 times against police officers at a smash-and-grab incident.
Last month the cabinet approved a bill that will criminalise hate crimes and hate speech.
The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crime and Hate Speech Bill will now be sent to Parliament for processing.
The proposed legislation states that you will be committing a crime of “hate speech” by simply “insulting” someone with the intention to bring them into “contempt”, or by ridiculing them based on anything from “belief” or “occupation” to the contentious elements such as race, gender and religion.
This could condemn you to prison for up to three years for a first offence, and for 10 years if you were to do it again.
Public law and political analyst Lukhona Mnguni said the use of the k-word evoked values of the past, and action should not be taken based on race.
“This case will be very interesting because the court will have to make ruling that will equalise all of us across racial division.
“The k-word invokes emotions because of what it was meant for in the past. No one should be using it,” said Mnguni.
He said although he did not know the background of Titi’s case, both parties could be brought into disrepute given the fact that it arose over a business deal gone wrong.
Hopefully, though, it would all be resolved amicably, said Mnguni.
He said you can’t legislate morality. It’s about how people encounter each other, he added.
“It’s not clear what they mean by certain words. At what point do you interpret certain words as an insult?” said Mnguni.
South Africa has an Equality Court which deals with cases of hate speech.