Human Rights Commission to take 'Tracy Zille' to court early next week

Commissioner Chris Nissen says the individual behind the account has been identified and a hate speech case is ready for the Equality Court

28 August 2020 - 18:43 By TimesLIVE
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
The SA Human Rights Commission says it has identified the person behind the controversial “Tracy Zille” Twitter account, and is likely to lodge a hate speech case with the Equality Court case early next week.
The SA Human Rights Commission says it has identified the person behind the controversial “Tracy Zille” Twitter account, and is likely to lodge a hate speech case with the Equality Court case early next week.
Image: 123RF/alexskopje

The SA Human Rights Commission says it has identified the person behind the controversial “Tracy Zille” Twitter account, and is likely to lodge a hate speech case with the Equality Court case early next week.

Speaking to journalist Joanne Joseph on Radio 702 on Thursday, SAHRC commissioner Chris Nissen said the DA had lodged a complaint over the account, which shares the same surname as former party leader Helen Zille.

He said the commission used a “tracing agency” to find out who was behind the account.

“Eventually, through our agency, we managed to get the name of the person and also sufficient evidence in terms of what can constitute hate speech and racism. There are a number of other things in it, but we prefer to keep it to hate speech,” said he.

Nissen told Joseph said it was not able to publicly release the identity of the individual until some legal processes had played out.

“We have now prepared the documentation to go to the Equality Court. We would love to do it tomorrow [Friday], but because of time and that we need more work to be done on it, it will probably be next week.

“We cannot confirm or deny the person's name until we inform him, which will be in the next 24 hours,” he said.

Asked about the content of the account and its posts, Nissen said: “We don't know if it's politically motivated or whether the person has a grudge or whatever. We only look at it from the point of the evidence in front of us. We would have loved to go to the court tomorrow... but probably Monday or Tuesday we'll be in court.”

TimesLIVE


subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now