Etzebeth row reveals HRC double standards

YOUR front page report and editorial on the Eben Etzebeth matter (Saturday Argus, October 5) refers.

Let me say that if even only half your report is veritably true, then I have no sympathy for Etzebeth and the law must take its course. Credit to the SAHRC for saying they will wait for due legal process.

My concern is over the double standards which seem to be applied in cases involving alleged and proven racism. Those calling for Etzebeth to be sent home, as he is in Japan representing our country, might have a point. However, what about the ambassador who posted racist comments on social media? She was not recalled and got off with a slap on the wrist.

A precedent was set but where was the HRC? The alacrity with which the HRC and SAPS went after a traumatised elderly woman, and a SA tourist in Greece for using the K-word and H-word respectively, contrasts sharply with the lack of action against certain black politicians who indulge in racist comments and hate speech.

Where was the HRC when Julius Malema, on being asked to explain why the EFF voted with the ANC to remove Athol Trollip as mayor of

PE, stated that they were “cutting the throat of whiteness”? If that is not hate speech and incitement to violence, then I don’t know what is.

And where were they when, in the aftermath of the collapse of a walkway at a Vaal Triangle school, in which four white pupils died, the leader of the Black First Land First movement was reported as saying that this meant that there would be four less “nuisances” to be dealt with?

May we please have consistency in the application of the laws. CLIVE KIHN | Durbanville