DA to lay complaint at SAHRC against EFF’s Nazier Paulsen

The DA says it will lay a complaint at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) against EFF MP Nazier Paulsen over “offensive” remarks he made on social media.

This after the party’s chief whip, Natasha Mazzone, said on Monday that the DA was urging Parliament’s ethics committee to urgently probe Paulsen over “offensive” Facebook posts about the coloured community.

“These vile remarks he made were derogatory and dehumanising and it is astounding that Paulsen even went so far as to try and defend his deplorable remarks in a Facebook post,” Mazzone said on Tuesday.

Mazzone added that the DA “finds it incredibly ironic” that Paulsen’s party, the EFF, “paints itself as the slayers of racism, protesting left, right and centre whenever an opportunity for posturing presents itself” but has failed to address racism “at its own core”.

“Paulsen is nothing if not a hypocrite, feeling comfortable calling a whole group of people ‘brown pets’ and ‘monkey face’ and then vandalising and destroying property, intimidating workers and inciting violence when the alleged racism comes from outside the EFF,” Mazzone said.

Mazzone pointed out that it would not be the first time that the DA had taken “a firm stance against Paulsen” after opening a case for incitement to violence against him and party leader Julius Malema earlier this year.

The DA laid criminal charges against the pair for inciting violence following social media posts where they urged their members to “get ready to attack”.

Malema and Paulsen tweeted pictures of machine guns following public violence by farmers who stormed Senekal Magistrates Court in Free State in an attempt to confront suspects accused of killing farm manager Brendin Horner.

Captioning a video showing the attack by farmers, Malema said EFF members would be present at the next court appearance of the suspects, adding that “magwala a chechele morago [cowards move to the back]! Fighters attack!”

READ MORE: DA lays criminal charges against Malema and Paulsen over ‘fighters attack!’ tweets

Mazzone said the DA “trusts” the SAHRC would take seriously the probe into Paulsen’s posts “as it did the investigation of the racist Clicks ad”.

“There can be no distinction or favour regarding the investigation of racism and bigotry and the serious damage it does to the fabric of our society.”

Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu. Additional reporting by Rorisang Kgosana

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