The Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) has ruled that Wayne Swanepoel must pay Bulelani Thembani R100 000 for calling him a ‘kaffir’ during an argument. A TimesLIVE report says its finding confirmed the view of an Mthatha Equality Court magistrate‚ who ordered Swanepoel last October to pay the damages and issue an unconditional apology to Thembani.

Swanepoel denied using the k-word or any other abusive term‚ but Thembani brought a case under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act and produced witnesses to back up his claim. Agreeing with the magistrate’s finding that on the balance of probabilities Swanepoel had used the word‚ Judge Richard Brooks said it was a term which ‘cannot be heard without flinching at the obvious derogatory and abusive connotations’. He added: ‘It is rightly to be classified as an inescapably racial slur with is disparaging‚ derogatory and contemptuous. Its use can only be as an expression of racism with a clear intention to be hurtful and to promote hatred.’

Full TimesLIVE report

In recent years‚ ‘racist rants’ have gained significant media attention‚ particularly when they are in written format and posted to various social media platforms, notes another TimesLIVE report. The latest of these was real estate agent Penny Sparrow who was fined R5 000 by the Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court on Monday after pleading guilty to a charge of crimen injuria. She was also fined R150 000 by the Equality Court at an earlier hearing.

The report adds that in 2015‚ Afrikaans singer Sunette Bridges was found guilty by the Human Rights Commission of ‘violent hate speech and racist’ comments posted on her Facebook wall. The singer was ordered to regularly monitor her Facebook pages and remove any content that amounts to hate speech‚ harassment‚ or the inciting of violence. Bridges’ case was billed as a test of what constitutes hate speech on social media. Lawyer William Booth said the agreement was a step towards effective regulation of social media.

In June 2016‚ government employee Velaphi Khumalo was issued with a final warning after being suspended‚ with full pay‚ from the Gauteng Sports‚ Arts‚ Culture and Recreation Department. In a Facebook post‚ the Sports Promotion Officer called for black South Africans to do to white people what ‘Hitler did to the Jews’ and cleanse the country of white people. Meanwhile‚ the Durban woman whose k-word tirade directed at black law enforcement officers was caught on a cell phone recording wants to plead guilty to the charges she is facing. Vicki Momberg's case will continue on 18 October.

Full TimesLIVE report