Court verdict comes as the populist politician Julius Malema faces internal disciplinary charges that could see him kicked out of the ANC. Louise Gray reports
(more…)
A South African court has today found Julius Malema, leader of the youth brigade of the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), guilty of hate speech. He was ordered to pay costs for singing an apartheid-era song that advocated the killing of white farmers. The civil case was brought against Malema by the Afrikaner civil rights group, Afriforum, who claimed white farmers felt vulnerable due to the song’s lyrics, which translate to “shoot the white farmer“.
South African president, Jacob Zuma has filed a $440,000 defamation lawsuit over a cartoon depicting him as a rapist of the justice system. The cartoon, published in 2008 by South Africa’s Sunday Times, depicts Zuma pulling his trousers down and about to rape a woman symbolising the justice system, aided by allies. One of Zuma’s allies depicted in the cartoon, filed a complaint about the cartoon before South Africa’s Human Rights Commission in 2008, however the commission concluded that the cartoon did not violate Zuma’s constitutional right to dignity or constitute hate speech.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) is proposing a law which would entitle the South African government to prevent journalists investigating or publishing anything deemed to be in the national interest. The law would introduce a Media tribunal, where the government would effectively judge what the media could publish. Another section would force journalists to reveal confidential sources. Critics claim press freedom is already under threat in South Africa; recently journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika was arrested just days after reporting on a large property deal undertaken by the National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele. Cole had vocally attacked wa Afrika over the article.