SAHRC says Edward Zuma doesn't understand hate speech

Edward Zuma's response to an allegation against him before the Equality Court shows he lacks an understanding of hate speech.

This is according to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)‚ which wants the court to find former president Jacob Zuma's son guilty of hate speech and fine him R100 000 for comments in an open letter to Derek Hanekom and Pravin Gordhan last year.

In an unusually lengthy replying affidavit‚ the commission's KwaZulu-Natal manager Tanuja Munnoo said Zuma failed to provide a defence to the hate speech charge.

"He simply noted the allegation made by the applicant. Elsewhere‚ he has labelled the averments made by the applicant as opinion. What the respondent has‚ however‚ failed to do is give his versions of events. The respondent's position displays a lack of understanding of hate speech‚" she said.

In the letter Zuma described the Gordhan and Hanekom as "anti majoritarian sell-out minority in the ANC who have brazenly and unabashedly spoken out against (President) Zuma on various white monopoly media platforms”.

He said Gordhan was one of the most corrupt cadres who‚ like Gandhi‚ “sees black South Africans as low class k…...s”‚ while Hanekom was a "white askari who will do anything to be an obstacle to radical economic transformation and to defend white monopoly privileges”.

In her affidavit‚ Munnoo said Zuma's utterances painted the pair as proponents of white minority privilege and opponents of socio-economic transformation.

"It paints them as the enemy of the majority of the people of this country. It contributes to the alienation of the target community and conveys a particularly divisive message that the Afrikaner and Indian people are less deserving of respect and dignity."

The directions hearing‚ which will discuss the way forward in the case‚ is set down for May 22.