South Africa’s Equality Court Postpones ANCYL’s Julius Malema Hate Speech Case
Julius Malema
By Own Correspondents – The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg postponed proceedings in the hate speech case of AfriForum against Julius Malema and the ANC to 1 November 2010, in order to provide the parties with an opportunity for mediation.
This means that AfriForum, the ANC and Julius Malema will be given six weeks in which to find manners in which a mutually acceptable settlement can be reached. If the mediation were not to succeed, the case will probably be heard in January 2011.
The legal representative of AfriForum, Willie Spies, mentioned in his response that AfriForum will cooperate in the endeavour to reach an acceptable settlement, but a public apology by Julius Malema will definitely be a minimum requirement for such a settlement. “The alleged hate speech was committed in public and a remedial statement would obviously have to be made in public too,” Spies said.
The complaint came about after Malema had repeatedly sung the contentious struggle song, Dubhula iBhunu (“Kill the Boer”) in March and April this year. Malema inter alia sang the song after the North Gauteng High Court had prohibited him from either singing this song, or from uttering any other words which might incite violence.
