R24 000 fine in black-on-black defamation case
Publish date: 11 May 2020
Issue Number: 872
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: South Africa
In a first of its kind ruling, a black person has been convicted and sentenced for calling another black person a ‘kaffir’, notes Legalbrief. Businessman Peter-Paul Ngwenya has been fined R24 000 or 12 months' imprisonment for his use of the K-word to his friend, says a SowetanLIVE report. NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane confirmed Ngwenya was sentenced in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court. ‘He was fined R24 000 or a 12-month imprisonment, wholly suspended for three years on condition that he is not found guilty of crimen injuria during the period of suspension,’ Mjonondwane said. Ngwenya was found guilty of crimen injuria last year. He was accused of calling his long-time friend Fani Titi a ‘QwaQwa kaffir’ and ‘Bantustan boss’ in a text message. The message was intended for Aqeel Patel, the MD of MRC Media. He was acquitted on the two counts of contravening protection orders. In the same text message, Ngwenya told Patel ‘you will bleed’ and that Titi ‘will see his mother’. Titi regarded this as a threat to his life as Ngwenya knew his mother had died. The conflict between Ngwenya and Titi, who had been friends for 20 years, stemmed from a multimillion-rand deal that soured. Ngwenya argued through his lawyers that the K-word only became offensive when it was used by a white person to a black person. But, Magistrate Pravina Raghoonandan, noting Ngwenya had a history of contributing to the struggle against apartheid, said he should have known that the use of the K-word amounted to hate speech and would impair Titi’s dignity. Ngwenya spent five years on Robben Island during the apartheid years.
Ngwenya confirmed the outcome and thanked those who had supported him during his trial, notes a report in The Citizen. The magistrate found that the use of the word ‘is not part of the culture’. ‘The use of the word is hate speech,’ the magistrate ruled. ‘It cannot be accepted that it is part of the culture, irrespective of race,’ she said.
