Court orders Kunene to apologise for calling Malema a ‘cockroach’

SUSPENDED Patriotic Alliance deputy president Kenny Kunene has to issue an apology to EFF leader Julius Malema for repeatedly calling him a cockroach during a television interview.

- ZELDA VENTER

The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, yesterday turned down Kunene’s appeal against an earlier Equality Court finding that his use of the words “cockroach’, “little frog” and “criminal” to refer to Malema amounted to hate speech within the meaning of the Equality Act.

These utterances were made during an eNCA interview. The aggrieved Malema subsequently turned to the Equality Court.

The Equality Court at the time ordered Kunene to apologise for using these words to describe Malema and interdicted Kunene from doing so in the future. On appeal, it was argued that Kunene's remarks were personal attacks on Malema rather than targeting any group of which Malema is a member.