Using the ‘k-word’ can be very costly, as Willem Ackerman has discovered after the Equality Court ordered that he not only had to pay R500 000 to the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, but he also has to undergo 50 hours of racial sensitisation training to be conducted by the Human Rights Commission or an institution nominated by it.

The Star report says the court heard Ackerman on four occasions used the k-word in a conversation with one of his white business associates.

He did not aim the word specifically towards any person, but his (now former) business associate, Garth Wellman, felt aggrieved by these words.

He turned to the Equality Court, together with another business associate, Emmanuel Amaning, to hold Ackerman accountable for his actions.

Wellman said Ackerman used the word in the sense that he (Wellman), as a fellow white person associated himself with such language, which he did not.

Amaning, who hails from Ghana, in turn said as a black person he did not take kindly to the use of the word and he wanted Ackerman to account for his actions.

Although Ackerman mostly denied that he used the word, Judge Gregory Wright concluded that he did indeed use the word. 

The judge declared that this speech is unlawful hate speech tantamount to unlawful discrimination against black people, including to Amaning, and constituted unlawful harassment of Wellman.

Part of the order read that Ackerman should make a public apology to Amaning.

In finding that Ackerman did make the utterances in conversations with Wellman, Wright said Ackerman relied on what he assumed would be the like-mindedness of Wellman.

‘This is precisely one of the assumptions that the Constitution and the Equality Act seek to displace,’ the judge said.

Full report in The Star

Judgment