Pretoria - The comments made by several people on social media following a January 2017 Carte Blanche exposé showing the shocking killing of donkeys for their skins to be exported for the Chinese medicinal market were hate speech.
The Equality Court sitting in the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, found that the comments by 11 people also constituted harassment and unfair discrimination against people from China and in contravention of the Equality Act.
Judge Motsamai Makume imposed fines of R50 000 against each of these people. Those who could not pay had to do community service, the judge ordered.
The central issue before the court was whether the various statements posted by the respondents on the platforms of the Donkey Sanctuary and the Carte Blanche Facebook page constituted hate speech and were therefore harmful against the persons of Chinese origin as contemplated by the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.
After a Carte Blanche insert on animal abuse and the trade in donkey skins, comments were made on social media about the Chinese community in South Africa.
This prompted the Chinese Association of Gauteng to approach the Equality Court with an application against 12 of the people who made the online comments.
The court, however, only found that 11 of the 12 respondents’ comments amounted to hate speech.
Following the report, a torrent of hate speech comments were posted on the programme’s Facebook page, as well as that of the Karoo Donkey Sanctuary, which were deemed abusive by the Chinese Association.
These include comments such as “We need to get rid of Chinese in SA ... they not welcome (sic).
“They steal our economy, dogs, rhinos and now donkeys. I think the same as the donkeys can be applied to our dogs and our pets”.
On January 28, 2017, the Chinese worldwide celebrated the start of the new year.
The following day Carte Blanche broadcast its programme on animal abuse and the trade of donkey skins, followed by a host of insulting posts by individuals against the Chinese community.
The court, in a lengthy 70-page judgment, analysed each post by each respondent, and the judge said he was satisfied that the words attributed to them encouraged other people to be hostile towards Chinese people and to expel them from South Africa.
“The words also seriously impaired the dignity of the Chinese people and undermined national unity.
“The words clearly propagated and promoted hatred towards the Chinese people, hate speech, harassment and unfair discrimination against people of China and are in contravention of the Equality Act,” the judge said.
He interdicted and restrained each respondent from publishing the same or similar words in respect of any race in any form or forum.
The judge further ordered that they had to, within 30 days, publish an unconditional apology to this community on the social media platforms of Karoo Donkey Sanctuary, Carte Blanche and the Chinese Group.
The respondents had to each pay R50 000 within six months of this order to the Hong Ning Chinese Aged Home.
Those who are unable to pay part or all of this amount may approach the court, setting out their financial situation, to substitute the fine with community service, which is equivalent to R50 000.
This will amount to about 10 hours of community service, during which the respondents must attend a training course at an organisation of the Chinese Association’s
Complainant's choice to teach the respondents how to remove hate speech from the internet, the judge ordered.
Pretoria News