“There can never be any context in which the use of the k-word is acceptable‚” the Human Rights Commission said on Friday.
The HRC was reacting to the Randburg Equality Court’s ruling on Thursday that Vicky Momberg was guilty of hate speech during her racist rant against Constable Clement Mkhondo. The court also found that his right to human dignity was infringed.
The violations of the right to equality top the cases reported to it‚ the HRC said in its statement. Of the 749 equality related complaints during 2015/2016‚ 505 were about racial discrimination‚ many involving the use of hateful epithets.
The commission said it was “deeply concerned” that violations of the right to equality and hate speech based on race‚ occur so routinely.
Momberg launched into an unprovoked tirade of racial abuse directed at Mkhondo following a smash-and-grab incident in February last year‚ invoking the k-word more than 40 times.
The court ordered Momberg to make an "unconditional" written apology to Mkhondo and‚to publish it on social media platforms and on the HRC's website. She is also to pay Mkhondo R100 000 in damages‚ perform community service for 100 hours and attend equality sensitivity training‚ the latter being welcomed by the HRC.
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