Is black-on-black use of K-word racist?

Whether the K-word is regarded as being racist when used by a black person is at the heart of a crimen injuria case being brought by Investec CEO Fana Titi against his erstwhile business associate, Peter-Paul Ngwenya. It is also one of the crucial areas of debate about the highly-contested Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, which was approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday and will soon come before Parliament. A Times Select report says Titi and Ngwenya have been involved in a long-running business feud that resulted in Titi obtaining a Protection from Harassment Act order against Ngwenya in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court. Last year, the Sunday Times reported that the two former friends had turned against each other in a fight over shares they bought in Gagasi FM and Heart FM, which were worth millions of rands. Ngwenya is now on trial for allegedly contravening that order. In what is thought to be a legal first, Titi is also pursuing a crimen injuria case against Ngwenya for sending an SMS to himself ‘and others’ in which he referred to Titi as a ‘QwaQwa kaffir’. Titi has started testifying and will face cross-examination from Ngwenya’s lawyers when he returns to court to fight the case later in March. But a crucial question that still needs to be answered is whether Ngwenya’s identity as a black man may be used as a defence of his alleged use of the K-word, suggests Times Select. Constitutional law expert Phephelaphi Dube said the most recently published version of the draft Bill would define the alleged use of the K-word by Ngwenya as ‘hate speech’. ‘The draft Bill does not distinguish the source of the speech, nor does it distinguish power relations.'