Cape Town - The Constitutional Court has given former Cosatu international relations spokesperson Bongani Masuku 30 days to apologise to the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) for harmful comments he made against South African Jews in 2009.
Masuku made four statements related to the protracted feud between Israel and Palestine during tensions that broke out in response to the Gaza War of 2008/2009 while Cosatu’s head of international relations.
The first of the statements was made on an online blog in February, 2009, and the second to fourth statements at a rally convened by the Palestinian Solidarity Committee at the University of the Witwatersrand in March 2009.
Commenting on Thursday, Masuku said: “We have seen the judgment but we have not yet discussed the approach. The Cosatu central executive committee will discuss it and they will decide.”
The Constitutional Court ruling upheld the conclusions reached initially by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and thereafter by the Equality Court that Masuku was guilty of contravening the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.
In 2017, Equality Court Judge Seun Moshidi said Masuku’s words were “hurtful, harmful, incite harm, and propagate hatred, and amount to hate speech”.
He ordered Masuku to make an “unconditional apology” to the SAJBD.
Masuku had been found guilty of hate speech by the SAHRC in 2009. At the time he was called to apologise to the SAJBD, but refused to do so.
Welcoming the apex court’s judgment, SAJBD chairperson Karen Milner stressed that while the SAJBD fully supported the right to freedom of expression, it was not permissible to infringe on the fundamental right of others to equality and human dignity as enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
“Bongani Masuku’s taunting reference to Jews who supported Israel as being friends of Hitler was especially hateful, and in view of well-known Jewish sensitivities over this tragic part of their history was clearly intended by him to cause maximum hurt and offence,” Milner said.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za