Rwandan genocide recalled in hate speech case

The Rwandan genocide – in which between 800 000 and a mi l l i o n people were butchered – was preceded by ‘hate speech’ on national radio which characterised Tutsi people as ‘snakes’ and not fit to be part of society. ‘This is the lesson to be learnt... hate speech can lead to massive confrontation,’ SA Human Rights Commission chair Bongani Majola – a lawyer and constitutional law expert – said during testimony at the Durban Equality Court trial in which two members of the African-consciousness movement, Mazibuye African Forum, are accused of inciting hatred against Indian people. A News24 report notes the commission and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation laid the complaint against Zweli Sangweni and Phumlani Mfeka after they made statements in newspaper articles and a newsletter to the effect that Indians – including Mahatma Gandhi – were racist and were responsible for exploiting Africans, and for their poor economic conditions. They want Equality Court Magistrate John Sanders to find the two men guilty and order them to apologise and pay a fine of R50 000, possibly to an orphanage. ‘From the evidence presented, the genocide was preceded by hate speech which mobilised those who were not Tutsi to eliminate them. Two-month-old babies and 97-year-old men and women were killed. As long as they were Tutsi, related to them, or tried to protect them, they were killed,’ he said. Majola noted that while the Constitution provided for freedom of expression, this did not extend to ‘advocacy of hatred’. Mbongeleni Mchunu, for Sangweni and Mfeka, said the forum had been established to deal with issues ‘which pertain to Africans flowing from the past apartheid laws and post democracy’. He said both his clients would testify.

Full Fin24 report