Cape Town - National Coloured Congress president Fadiel Adams remains unrepentant after the Equality Court ruled that his social media posts were racially offensive and ordered him to apologise.
The target of Adams’ posts was the Cape Town city manager Lungelo Mbandazayo, whom Adams referred to as “from the Eastern Cape”, a statement, in the context of the posts, which was deemed to be racially offensive.
Adams made the statements during “Facebook Live” broadcasts, in February and March last year.
“The city manager, in case you didn’t know, is Lungelo Mbandazayo. We presume the man is from the Eastern Cape. We understand that he may not care about coloured people or the Cape Flats. It is generally what you get when you hire from without,” Adams reportedly uttered.
“What has happened here guys is that the Cape Flats has been robbed again. And a man from the Eastern Cape has made a decision to cancel it. Coloured lives don’t matter.”
The war of words between Adams and the City manager stretches back to 2018 when a contract for repairing staircases in residential flats on the Cape Flats was cancelled. Adams responded yesterday, saying that he would appeal the ruling.
“Apparently in the City of Cape Town, the city manager can admit to unlawfully cancelling a contract. The result of this injures people on the Cape Flats, which causes bones to break and he is the victim. Make this make sense,” Adams said.
Adams, a councillor at the time alleged fraud and corruption in the cancellation and demanded access to a forensic investigation report by the City, which was not made public.
Judge Nobahle Mangcu-Lockwood of the Western Cape High Court has now determined that Adams’ usage of the term was a racist cliche meant to depict Mbandazayo as inferior and unable rather than a neutral geographic reference.
“I have already stated that what is sought to be conveyed by the respondent’s utterances is that black African people from the Eastern Cape generally do not care about the plight of coloured people and that they are outsiders to issues affecting coloured people,” the judge said.
“In my view, the respondent’s speech meets all of the requirements for hate speech as set out in Qwelane and Mauku. I have also already rejected the respondent’s explanation that the actual target of his statements was the DA. The clear implication of the utterances is that the leadership of a black African person is incapable of addressing the concerns of coloured communities.”
Judge Mangcu-Lockwood highlighted that the right of freedom of expression does not entitle Adams to discriminate against others, assault their dignity and propagate hate speech.
Adams was ordered to remove the social media post by today, as well as issue a public apology to Mbandazayo.
However, the list goes on as Adams must also enrol or undertake a programme on racial sensitivity training at his own expense at the end of May. Judge Mangcu-Lockwood also ordered that Adams must pay for Mbandazayo’s costs, including costs for senior counsel.
Last year, a young mother from Ocean View broke her leg after falling through the concrete staircase of a City flat. Residents have filed several complaints to the City about the poor state of the staircases but nothing was done.
Adams said: “Some R500 million (was) stolen from the coloured people, the city manager signed off on it. (He) has defended the people who are before the court for stealing this money.”