The hate speech judgment would have cost BLF’s spokesperson, Lindsay Maasdorp, and deputy secretary-general, Zwelakhe Dubasi, R200,000, in addition to legal fees.

Pupils Roydon Olckers, 17, Jandré Steyn, 13, Marli Currie, 14, and Marnus Nagel, 16, were killed and 22 others injured after a concrete walkway linking two school buildings collapsed.

In the wake of the incident at the school, which is situated in Vanderbijlpark, BLF spokesperson Lindsay Maasdorp responded to a post by Facebook user Siyanda Gumede in which he said he was unmoved by the pupils’ deaths as they would eliminate “three future problems” from the world. According to the Facebook post, Gumede said Maasdorp was “correct” in posting his comment, adding “God is responding”.

“Why should we frown on the ancestors’ petitions to punish the land thieves including their offspring,” Gumede continued.

Acting on behalf of the parents of two pupils who died and two others who survived, labour union Solidarity took the BLF to the Equality Court.

On Tuesday, the Citizen reported Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng had prepared a ruling in the Equality Court that found Maasdorp guilty of hate speech and ordered him and the BLF’s deputy secretary-general, Zwelakhe Dubasi, to pay R50 000 in damages to each of the affected families of the dead children, which would have amounted to R200 000.

Judge Mokgoatlheng then nullified his ruling following the recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in favour of former journalist, ambassador and columnist Jon Qwelane.

Qwelane was vindicated by the second highest court in the land after he wrote a column titled Call me names, but gay is not okay, which was published by the Sunday Sun more than 10 years ago.

He was found guilty of hate speech two years ago. His conviction was overturned recently by the SCA.