Activist group AfriForum has failed to force the Open Stellenbosch (OS) movement supporter Johannes Pienaar to remove social media posts suggesting the organisation’s supporters had threatened to rape women at an End Rape Culture protest this year, notes a Weekend Argus report. Acting Judge Michael Donen found on Friday the relief sought by AfriForum and its head of local government affairs, Marcus Christiaan Pawson, would have a detrimental effect on political free speech. AfriForum could meet political criticism by responding to the posts with rebuttals on social media, he said. The judgment stems from protest action in the vicinity of the JS Marais statue at Stellenbosch University on 3 March. On the one side was a march organised by the the EFF Student Command at the university, which supports the OS mov ement. On the other side, was AfriForum, there to celebrate the university’s heritage and clean up the campus, including scrubbing graffiti off the statue. Violent clashes between the two factions followed and soon afterwards Pienaar posted a video clip of the incident, along with a post that read: ‘Look at how Marcus Pawson from AfriForum uses rape to intimidate a rape survivor. This happened on Thursday and this is what AfriForum is desperately trying to cover up with spurious criminal charges and fake civil action.’ Pawson alleged the message was ‘vexatious and unfounded’, and denied any AfriForum supporter had threatened anyone with rape. Pawson claimed Pienaar had pretended to shield a woman, who was not being attacked, as a publicity stunt. But witnesses who testified in support of Pienaar said AfriFforum members were cleaning the slogan ‘End Rape Culture’ off the statue when they turned on women and groped the men.

Full Weekend Argus report  

AfriForum ‘disagrees significantly’ with the judgment. ‘It is definitely false that AfriForum or any of our members are harassing (women),’ Pawson is quoted as saying in a News24 report. The judge, however, laid most of the blame at AfriForum’s door, saying that its supporters did ‘inflict their rape culture on her (a rape victim) and other women present’. But Pawson said the respondents had lied in their affidavit and a video to prove AfriForum’s point was declared inadmissible. ‘The lies by the respondent can never be seen as a right of sorts,’ Pawson said. He would study the judgment, and would decide later on a course of action.

Full News24 report