Bongani Masuku ordered to apologise for one of four complaints Photo FreespeechonIsrael.org.uk
Johannesburg – Bongani Masuku has been ordered by the Constitutional Court to apologise to the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) within 30 days for a hate speech comment he made back in 2009.
There were four complaints that were made against Masuku but only one of those were deemed to be hate speech.
Masuku’s comments were made in his capacity as the head of international relations for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). The comments were made at the height of the Gaza war which was published in an online blog. Some were made at a rally convened by the Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (PSA) at the University of the Witwatersrand in March 2009.
The context of the case needs to be considered. According to Naazim Adam, PSA coordinator affiliated to the SABDS coalition, Masuku made the comments when he was, “provoked and spurred on by the very hate and privilege of the Zionist forces in this country during the height of a bloody conflict in Gaza.”
Although Masuku lost the court case, Adam said there were some positives that came out of the ruling.
“The important point is that the court also very clearly made it established for South African law that you cannot conflate Zionism to Judaism and the attack on Zionism is not necessarily antisemitic. So, there were some positives that I think we can take out from this.”
Adam still believes that Masuku “is a stand-up guy” and the comments were said “in a moment of anger”, also adding the organisation is not a racist one as they often are criticised to be.
“We are not a movement that is racist in any way. We get criticism of that. Our reason for fighting against Zionism is primarily because Zionism is a racist concept and that the Israeli state is an apartheid state which a number of human rights organisations over the past few months have just exposed and established from their own independent investigations and reports.”
At the time of the incident, the Zionist foundation was having a rally which Adam believes was to celebrate “the war and the killing of innocent people” in Gaza and Masuku “was baited by the Jewish students on the campus” who provoked him into responding the way that he did.
Masuku’s comment, which was deemed to be hate speech, referenced Hitler as a friend to the Zionists.
“As we struggle to liberate Palestine from the racists, fascists, and Zionists who belong to the era of their friend Hitler! We must not apologise; every Zionist must be made to drink the bitter medicine they are feeding our brothers and sisters in Palestine.”
In its ruling the Constitutional Court found that a reasonable person would understand the statement as being based on Jewishness as an ethnicity and not on anti-Zionism
Adam stressed the comments were not directed at the Jewish community but those that support the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and Zionist organisations.
“Mr. Masuku targeted those who support Israel via their membership of the IDF [Israeli Defence Force] … Those who know Bongani know that there was never a blanket attack on the Jewish people or the Jewish state and the ethnicity but rather against the actions that many Jewish people sort of support and that’s the actions of the Israeli state and that is unacceptable.”
Even with this ruling being passed, it should not deter people from speaking out for the people of Palestine. “We need to continue to be vocal,” said Adam.
Masuku was previously found guilty of hate speech in 2009 by the South African Human Rights Commission and then found guilty in 2017 by the Equality Court in Johannesburg and was ordered to apologise for his statement.
Inayet Wadee speaks to Naazim Adam on Salaamedia here:
