Civil rights organisation AfriForum laid criminal charges yesterday afternoon at the Lyttelton police station against the person behind the Thandiswa Mawisa Facebook account.
The charges pertain to several recent messages she posted on Facebook, which contain hate speech, words of intimidation and incitement to violence.
Mawisa also downloaded a picture of another Facebook user’s daughter, which she then edited to appear as if the child was in a shooter’s cross hairs.
AfriForum deputy CEO Ernst Roets said the words “Bullet between the devil eyes” accompanied the picture.
“Although AfriForum received hundreds of complaints regarding hate speech, intimidation, racism and incitement to violence on social media, we are shocked that a child is dragged into the debate in such an awful manner.
We therefore decided to hand in this affidavit immediately,” he said.
Mawisa wrote on Facebook: “This is why I celebrate with a big smile and a dance when white farmers are killed here in the Free State.
“Our farm killers should keep killing farmers and if possible raping their women & little daughters and possibly infecting them with Aids. That will teach them not to mess with us.”
She went on to say: “Good! Good! Good! We need to attack and kill more pink pigs in the farms. I am proud of this comrade who attacked this white farmer.
“This voortrekker shits will pay for the crimes that they commit against the INDIGENOUS BLACK CHILD in Coligny and many other places. Let’s go out & kill them now. Kill the Boers, Kill the Farmers, All of Them. Amandla!!!!!”
AfriForum requested the police to verify the identity of the person behind the Thandiswa Mawisa account and to bring the person to justice.
It’s also possible the online persona is fake and was simply created by a troll.
“We have noticed an increasing trend in the use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to spew racism and incite violence. We sincerely hope that the police will conduct a thorough investigation and punish those responsible,” Roets said.
He invited the public to continue sending examples of racism, hate speech and incitement to violence to rasklag@afriforum.co.za.
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