Zindzi Mandela facing hate speech complaint

AfriForum has lodged a hate speech complaint against SA ambassador to Denmark Zindzi Mandela for tweets the organisation believes 'bore witness to a hate-bearing attitude'. The complaint was lodged with the SA Human Rights Commission, says TimesLIVE. Mandela created a stir on social media last month after her 'apartheid apologists' and 'land thieves' tweets went viral. AfriForum deputy CEO Alana Bailey said in a statement today: 'Mandela bore witness to a hate-bearing attitude towards white people in the country. She has publicly contributed to the polarisation of local communities. With crude language, as well as false and humiliating references such as "rapists", "cowards" and "land thieves", she is contributing to a dangerous discourse of scapegoating. 'Her defence "that she is entitled to her personal opinion" demonstrates a complete lack of insight into her responsibility as ambassador to promote the image of SA and to serve all South Africans without prejudice.'

EFF leader Julius Malema said Mandela-Hlongwane had his support. 'We will defend her with everything,' he tweeted, according to The Citizen. AfriForum's complaint comes after the lobby group decided that Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Naledi Pandor's reaction to the tweets was insufficient. After investigating the authenticity of the tweets, Pandor told Mandela to conduct herself as a diplomat and adhere to the social media policy of government. The lobby group, however, wanted the diplomat immediately recalled and dismissed. 'In view of this outcome, AfriForum has therefore decided to proceed with this complaint to the SAHRC,' said Bailey. Meanwhile, the EFF said it was 'in full support of everything Zindzi said on Twitter', adding that she must be protected at all costs. 'No African child must ever be suspended or even threatened with losing any job or privileges for speaking the truth about the land. The land question must be resolved for a true decolonisation of our country to happen. Without the land, political freedom is futile and will soon be a joke,' the statement said. 'There is nothing racist by stating the correct fact that white people drove a racist project of land dispossession called colonisation. Zindzi Mandela must be defended from the racists' onslaught.'