By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@VeliNhlapho.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) deputy president Kenny Kunene will have to apologise to EFF leader Julius Malema after the Johannesburg High Court found him guilty of hate speech when he referred to EFF leader Julius Malema as “a cockroach” and “a little frog” in November 2021.
The high court has ordered Kunene to publicly apologise to Malema and retract the statement.
Kunene must issue the apology within 30 days.
Judge Motsamai Makume said the statement uttered by Kunene when he referred to Malema as “a cockroach”, “little frog” and criminal “are hereby declared to constitute hate speech” as defined by the Equality Act.
The court further interdicted and restrained Kunene from publishing, propagating, advocating or communicating hate speech as defined by the Equality Act.
Makume directed the registrar of the high court, within 30 days of the judgment, to prepare a dossier of papers filed in the matter together with a copy of the judgment and submit the dossier to the director of public prosecutions, who will have to determine whether the impugned statement warrants institution of criminal proceedings for crimen injuria against Kunene.
The court ordered Kunene and the PA to pay Malema’s costs.
The spat between Kunene and Malema started after the EFF leader said he was “conflicted” about working with “amapantiti” (convicts), amid coalition negotiations between the PA and EFF after the local government elections.
“I’m going to deal with this little frog. Julius is just an irritating cockroach that I must now deal with publicly,” Kunene said during an interview with eNCA.
Malema is a criminal and I’m going to show South Africans the crimes he has been involved in. I’m going to tell South Africans why I left the EFF because of this cockroach. So, I’m going to deal with this cockroach because we have given him time and respect,” he added.
Malema then demanded through his lawyers that Kunene withdraw his comments and make a public apology, or face a R1 million lawsuit.
He accused Kunene of hate speech and tribalism, saying the comments caused “significant reputational damage”.
During the trial Malema’s lawyer said the term ‘cockroach’ had links to the Rwandan genocide.
In September 2022, the lawyer representing Kunene accused Malema of hypocrisy.
“When he [Malema] is taken to court by [Public Enterprises Minister Pravin] Gordhan, and when he is taken to this court by [lobby group] AfriForum, he relies on the metaphorical meaning and says to the court, ‘don’t take it literally because I am just engaging in political debate… people know I don’t mean it literally; people know it is not what I meant,” advocate Greta Engelbrecht.
Malema had also previously called the DA’s federal chair Helen Zille a cockroach. He, however, later withdrew the comment and apologised.