NATIONAL NEWS - According to Ulrich Roux, a Johannesburg attorney, recent court findings set a clear precedent that the courts will no longer tolerate any speech that seeks to divide South Africans along the lines of race or ethnicity.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) was granted an order in the Equality Court in Durban yesterday that interdicts Zuma from “publishing, propagating, advocating or communicating hate speech”.

This comes after statements he made in an open letter in July 2017. Therein, he referred to ministers Pravin Gordhan and Derek Hanekom as sellouts and supporters of white monopoly capital.

The letter followed closely on the pair’s sacking as ministers by then president Zuma.

Gordhan was described as “one of the most corrupt cadres of the ANC who thinks African natives are no better than just being sugar cane cutters who must be forever subservient to a master like him for sustenance [sic]”. Hanekom, meanwhile, was described as a “white Afrikaner Askari” and “no better than a vile dog trained to maul a black skin”.

Shortly after the release of his letter, the SAHRC issued a statement saying the letter promoted hatred on the basis of race, and warned that it would approach the Equality Court. The younger Zuma was ordered to apologise to Hanekom and Gordhan shortly thereafter.

Read more on the Caxton publication, The Citizen.