Johnathan Paoli
THE National Assembly this week endorsed technical amendments made to the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), including a reduction in the prison term for such crimes from eight to five years.
Under the Bill, “harm” warranting criminal sanction would include any “substantial emotional, psychological, physical, social or economic detriment that objectively and severely undermines the human dignity of the targeted individual.”
The DA’s Werner Horn said he doesn’t believe the bill could pass the constitutional muster, and said he was concerned over the implementation of the legislation, and that it could possibly stifle the freedoms of expression and speech.
“It does not contain a definition of hate as well as the nonsensical and self-defeating nature of the clauses that pretend to protect the rights of academics, journalists, artists and religious groups,” Horn said.
The EFF’s Busisiwe Mkhwebane said the bill was necessary to deal with racist incidents and combat the prevalent legacies of racism in the country.
But the NFP’s Shaik Emam cautioned about its selective application.
“Why is it hate speech if a white person says something about a black person, but not when a black person insults a white person?” Emam asked.
Despite the objections from the DA, Freedom Front Plus and ACDP the bill will now be sent to the President to sign into law.
Earlier this month the FW De Klerk Foundation said that the bill was an unjustifiable limitation of the right to freedom of expression, and did not align with international law, and other remedies were available and have been successfully relied on to deal with instances of hate speech.
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