Malema wins hate speech case against Pravin Gordhan

The Equality Court has dismissed Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s hate speech case against EFF leader Julius Malema following his comment about Gordhan being a “dog of white monopoly capital”.

The case was dismissed with costs on Thursday morning, including the costs for two counsel.

According to Judge Roland Sutherland, while Malema’s utterances aimed at Gordhan were “indeed hateful”, the minister’s legal team failed to prove that they violated the Equality Act and thereby constituted hate speech.

“Despite the fact that the utterances were indeed hateful and at aimed at endangering hatred against the applicant, the applicant has failed to bring his understandable grievances within the compass of the Equality Act,” Sutherland ruled.

Gordhan took the EFF leader to the Equality Court, sitting in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, after Malema took aim at the minister of public enterprises outside the state capture commission of inquiry venue in Parktown, in November last year.

During his attack, Malema referred to Gordhan as a “dog of white monopoly capital” and told EFF supporters to be “ready for war” against the minister, News24 previously reported.

Gordhan’s counsel advocate Ngwako Maenetje SC put a lens over parts of Malema’s statement to demonstrate that it constituted hate speech, News24 reported.

During his address, Malema also said: “Once you take a decision to go after Pravin, you must be ready. If you are not ready, don’t come to the EFF. We’ve now taken a decision to fight Pravin and therefore you must know Pravin is going to fight dirty… There will be casualties. There can even be a loss of life. If you are not ready for that, stand aside. I’m not scared. I’m ready. I’m prepared to confront them one by one.”

Gordhan’s counsel submitted that the above statement was a mechanism to create polarisation within society.

“Polarisation and dehumanisation through words are the first stage and precursor to the violence which follows. The ‘them’ becomes an acceptable target of violence once dehumanised.

“This is the antithesis of the inclusive, non-racist South Africa envisaged in the Constitution,” Maenetje argued.

Malema, in his statement, also said: “Pravin is a cabal that belongs to the UDF and destroyed all good African comrades… he’s no good, this guy. He has destroyed Peter Mokaba, he has destroyed Winnie Mandela; he has destroyed everyone else that stood for the truth against the apartheid regime. His shenanigans are not new.”

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