Cliff regrets weighing into Sparrow racism row

Media personality Gareth Cliff says he lost out on several business deals after weighing in on the racism debacle sparked by KwaZulu-Natal estate agent Penny Sparrow.

Early last year‚ Sparrow triggered a storm on social networking sites after she referred to black beachgoers as “monkeys”.

Sparrow has since been fined R150‚000 by the Umzinto Equality Court‚ which ordered her to pay that sum to the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation.

Cliff found himself in hot water on Twitter after he spoke out on the debacle‚ defending Sparrow’s right to freedom of speech.

The former 5FM radio host said he regrets ever weighing into the debate as it cost him many deals he had in the pipeline.

“I had a tiny baby of a business that was a year old and we had pitifully commercial clients such as your big banks and big corporates who cancelled their advertising deals with us because they didn’t want to associate themselves with anyone who was controversial‚” said Cliff‚ who is a former judge on talent show Idols and owns online radio station Cliff Central.

• What Gareth Cliff's victory means for rules of twar against racism: iLIVESouth Africa has been ablaze with statements on social media.

“I’m a capitalist and I believe in freedom of expression and I will stand up for it wherever I can‚ but in that particular case‚ if I could wind back the clock‚ I would have avoided the whole thing [because] it wasn’t my fight. I was drawn in and because I was a bigger fish than Penny Sparrow‚ a lot of the heat came my way.”

He was speaking during a presentation titled “Internet access and Free Speech” at the Free Market Foundation in Bryanston in the north of Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.

• Former judge slams hate speech bill as unlawfulFormer Judge Rex van Schalkwyk has slammed the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill‚ calling it a violation of the rule of law.

Referring to the theme of the night‚ Cliff said the internet had allowed more people to express themselves to a growing audience.

“Free thought‚ and the free expression of that thought lead to the best ideas being cultivated and strengthened and the worst ideas being challenged and replaced‚” Cliff said.

“In an environment of censorship and authoritarianism‚ good ideas aren’t encouraged to come out and bad ideas sometimes receive unwarranted protection‚” Cliff added.

He ended off his presentation by telling the crowd to never be afraid to say what they think and what other people might say.