The SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has welcomed the Constitutional Court’s judgment confirming that Cosatu International Relations Secretary, Bongani Masuku, must apologise for offensive and inflammatory remarks he made against the Jewish community in 2009.
The ruling upholds the conclusion of the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Equality Court that Masuku was guilty of contravening Section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000 (Pepuda).
The SAHRC found that Masuku’s statements were of ‘an extreme nature that advocate and imply that the Jewish and Israeli community are to be despised, scorned, ridiculed and this subjecting them to ill-treatment on the basis of religious affiliation’ and thus they were ‘offensive and unpalatable to society’.
The offending statement was: ‘Bongani says hi to you all as we struggle to liberate Palestine from the racists, fascists, and zionists who belong to the era of Hitler! We must not apologise, every Zionist must be made to drink the bitter medicine they are feeding our brothers and sisters in Palestine. We must target them, expose them and doo all that (sic) is needed to subject them to perpetual suffering until they withdraw from the land of others and stop their savage attacks on human dignity.’
SAJBD Chairperson Professor Karen Milner said that while the SAJBD fully supported the right to freedom of expression, this did not make it permissible to infringe the fundamental right of others to equality and human dignity as enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
The SAJBD commended the SAHRC and the ConCourt for sending out a clear message that the right to freedom of expression did not include a licence to indulge in hate speech and incitement.
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