Pressure piles on Malema

RIGHTS COMMISSION: MUGABE QUOTE ‘HATE SPEECH’

Body to refer EFF leader’s tweet about ‘dead white man’ to Equality Court.

The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) plans to take action against Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema for his “social media utterances”, following the death of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.

“The social media utterances by Malema around Mugabe’s death, on a prima facie basis, amount to hate speech under Section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act,” the commission said.

The body was referring to a pinned tweet from Malema showing quotes from Mugabe, including one which reads: “The only white man you can trust is a dead white man”.

This caused outrage and calls for intervention from the SAHRC, including from former DA leader Tony Leon.

“The SAHRC has, on numerous occasions, urged political leaders to recognise and take responsibility for the power they wield through their words,” said the commission in a statement.

“At the same time, the commission remains committed to promoting and protecting the right to freedom of expression. The right to free speech is protected as a basic human right. This right is, however, limited and hate speech is not protected under the right to freedom of expression.

“The commission is, therefore, deeply concerned by recent utterances attributed to Malema.

“The SAHRC condemns these racially divisive utterances, as they go against the nonracialist values upon which SA’s constitutional democracy is founded and will, therefore, refer the matter to the Equality Court.” Malema, on Twitter, shared a screenshot showing that someone had reported the tweet, and that Twitter “could not identify any violations of the Twitter rules”. He shared this along with the caption “Stratcom”, once an apartheid-era unit tasked with spreading misinformation.

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi ignored requests for comment.

The SAHRC condemns these racially divisive utterances