Court orders Kenny Kunene to apologise to Julius Malema for hate speech

Suspended deputy president of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Kenny Kunene, is compelled to apologise to EFF leader Julius Malema after a Gauteng High Court ruling.

The court rejected Kunene’s appeal against a previous Equality Court decision, which deemed his derogatory remarks—referring to Malema as a "cockroach," "little frog," and "criminal"—as hate speech under the Equality Act. 

These utterances were made during an eNCA interview with Kunene.

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.

Judge Stuart Wilson, who wrote the judgment on behalf of the full bench, in the opening of his appeal judgment, remarked that the central question in this appeal was whether one political leader who calls another political leader a “cockroach” in the course of a televised discussion of the outcome of a local election commits an act of hate speech.

“We conclude that he does. This is because that conduct falls squarely within the textual definition of “hate speech” outlined in section 10 of the Equality Act.”

The judge added that political speech in South Africa must be prevented from degenerating into an act of mutual dehumanisation.

Judge Wilson said the consequences of such dehumanisation are written largely across the pages of history.

“They reveal themselves in the pogroms and genocides that the use of the word ‘cockroach’ evokes... The Constitution and the Equality Act require us to enforce the modest limits on political discourse that are necessary to prevent it from doing so.

“It seems to me that Mr Kunene should be given the opportunity to bring himself back within the limits of lawful expression, and unequivocally to accept that there are some things that he is simply not permitted to utter because they undermine the political system in which he is himself an important participant,” Judge Wilson said.

He interdicted Kunene from describing Malema as a “cockroach” in the future. Kunene must issue a written and oral apology within a month.

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