Free speech can be abused

The assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in the United States during a debate at the University of Utah will have far-reaching implications in that country and in many other countries around the world, South Africa included.

- Sydney Majoko

Those who embraced his right-wing politics like the US president himself, Donald Trump, have elevated his assassination to a level even higher than some of that country's high-profile assassinations, including those of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

Why does Kirk's brutal killing on stage, mid-sentence, matter for South Africans? Because even SA's so-called white genocide was part of the issues Kirk pronounced on.

It needs to be noted that though Kirk and the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement have used the US' free-speech “anything goes” liberty to seek to rewrite and redefine history, SA has thus far collectively resisted the race-baiting politics that some of the politicians here have sought to use to rewrite SA’s history.