EFF to challenge Equality Court ruling over Malema’s ‘hate speech’ judgment

THE EFF has rejected the Equality Court’ ruling, which found that Julius Malema’ statements were hate speech and incited violence.

- HOPE NTANZI

The party said it had instructed its lawyers to challenge the decision.

“The EFF has already instructed our lawyers to begin the process of challenging this ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeals.”

In a statement released following the ruling on Wednesday, the EFF described the judgment as “a grave distortion of history, philosophy, and the nature of political speech in a democratic society.”

The Equality Court upheld a complaint by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), based on Malema’s comments at the party’s Western Cape 3rd Provincial People’s Assembly on 16 October 2022.

Malema had said, among other things: “You must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing” and “Racism is violence and violence can only be ended by violence”

The court ruled that these remarks “could reasonably be construed as demonstrating a clear intention to incite harm,’ in violation of Section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Pre-

vention of Unfair Discrimination Act (Equality Act).