5 reactions to Julius Malema's hate speech ruling

Social media users flooded Twitter timelines on Wednesday after the SA Human Rights Commission ruled that EFF leader Julius Malema's utterances were "problematic" but did not amount to hate speech.

The SAHRC's chairperson Bongani Majola said five complaints had been received against Malema between 2016 and 2018.

Majola said the commission considered the complaints, looking at the facts, context, the applicable law and the constitution in the process. It ruled that Malema's comments had not amounted to hate speech.

"We came to the conclusion that while the acts forming the subject of the complaints may be offensive, they do not meet the legal threshold to qualify as hate speech," Majola said.

"We took quite some time to consider these Malema matters, partly because the law itself in this regard is not yet crystal clear, and partly because we wanted to view and review the conclusions that the legal principals seemed to be compelling us towards."

The decision has been celebrated by many on social media. Social media users flooded Twitter with their reaction to the news.

There were five kinds of response: