Legislation: More time for input on hate crimes Bill

The deadline for written submissions on the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill has been extended to 15 February, according to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. The dates of public hearings on the Bill have yet to be announced. As Legalbrief Today has regularly reported, the proposed new statute seeks to criminalise hate crimes and hate speech aimed at inciting violence or harmful behaviour based on differences in appearance, origin, culture, language, religion gender, gender identity or sexual orientation among other things. This is noting the need to strike a balance between the constitutionally enshrined rights to dignity, security and freedom of expression. It was tabled in Parliament last April and put on hold by the National Assembly’s Justice and Correctional Services Committee pending receipt of a report summarising comments and petitions received on the 2016 draft. At the time, some committee members believed the Bill should have focused on crimes and hate speech motivated purely by racism.

In November, addressing a workshop in Cape Town hosted by the Southern African Liaison Office, Justice and Constitutional Development Deputy Minister John Jeffery told participants that criminalising ‘racism only’ would ‘ignore the existence and impact of intersectionality’, which ‘plays a significant role in addressing past patterns of discrimination’. Intersectionality apparently contends that ‘the traditional notions of oppression such as racism, sexism and homophobia are not independent’ but instead ‘interrelate’ – generating a system of oppression characterised by ‘the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination’. With that in mind, the Bill seeks not only to prohibit and prevent discrimination based on race, but also on other grounds.

In the Deputy Minister’s view, in dealing with hate speech, unfair discrimination and harassment but not with hate crime, the 2000 Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act ‘recognises that unfair discrimination and hate speech may constitute crimes and must be regarded as an aggravating factor for the purposes of sentencing – but does not address hate crimes ‘individually and specifically’. Jeffery believes the Act has ‘further weakness’. While ‘it prohibits unfair discrimination generally, it focuses specifically on discrimination based on race, disability and gender, but does not include nationality, … sexual orientation or any other grounds’. This could be perceived to create ‘a hierarchy of hate’ by prioritising some forms of discrimination over others. Once in force, the Bill is expected to rectify this. 

Follow Pam Saxby on Twitter (@SaxbyPam)