Advert
Advert – scroll down
Displaying 10 latest comments. Click here to see more.
Submitted | first-name | support | top-concern | message | template |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2025-01-15 12:55:34 +02:00 | Eugene | No I do not | All of the above | Yes I do | |
2025-01-13 16:45:08 +02:00 | Lydia | No I do not | All of the above | Dear Mr. Ramaphosa ...rather not Mr. President | No I do not |
2025-01-13 15:51:13 +02:00 | Ray | No I do not | All of the above | The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill (the Bill), passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday, 5 December 2023, refers. REQUEST: I am writing to appeal to Your Excellency to send the Bill back to the National Assembly for reconsideration, because of the constitutional concerns below. CONSTITUTIONAL CONCERNS ABOUT THE BILL’S DEFINITION OF “HATE SPEECH”: The Bill contravenes section 36 of the Constitution, because it is: Unnecessary as existing laws have already been successfully implemented in various criminal and civil cases of hate speech. Overbroad: The Bill’s definition of “hate speech” is broader than the Constitution’s definition of hate speech, criminalising speech the Constitution sees as protected. The Bill’s definition of “hate speech” is also broader than the Equality Act’s civil law definition of (civil) hate speech. This will make it easier to be found guilty of a criminal offence and sent to jail for up to five years than to be ordered to e.g. apologise under the Equality Act. Vague and ambiguous: The Bill’s different elements for the crime of hate speech are either undefined (e.g. hate) or vague and/or ambiguous (e.g. social cohesion). The Bill also contravenes the Constitution’s founding value of the rule of the law (section 1(c)), because it fails to define the essential element of “hate”. The result is that citizens are unable to know beforehand whether they are committing a crime or not. OTHER CONCERNS ABOUT THE BILL: The Bill fails to incorporate the United Nations’ Rabat Plan of Action threshold test (the requirements used to determine culpability for criminal hate speech). Thus it will cause South Africa to break its international law obligations and commitments to: uphold freedom of expression and impose criminal sanctions for hate speech only as a last resort measure in strictly justifiable circumstances. | Yes I do |
2025-01-13 08:09:20 +02:00 | M | No I do not | All of the above | Dear Mr President Speech is a gift some are gifted to use. It can be used for good or for bad. The definition of what is good and what is bad is sometimes difficult to assess, and for that we have a constitution to guide us. Unfortunately this bill failed to take into account the constitution, and it has also failed to even adhere to the idea of what a law should be: an agreement everyone can understand about what is agreed should be done and what not. It failed this by not clearly defining what hate speech is. Furthermore it also seeks to put people into jail for longer than murderers: why? I think if our society wishes to grow we need to allow people to say stupid things and be shamed by society and then have an opportunity to correct what was said. It is called growth. And I think a system allowing this will suite South Africa better than this proposed bill. | No I do not |
2025-01-13 07:56:44 +02:00 | Wesley | No I do not | The Bill is unnecessary | The government as a whole which includes all political parties that are involved, wants to control the people. They want to make sure that no one says anything bad about the government on all platforms which includes social media. They also don't want the true church of God(Jesus Christ) to preach the truth. They want to side with terrorists such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Abbas, ISIS, Putin and the Russian government as well as the LGBTQA++ instead of aligning itself with Israel as the word of God says and doing what's right according to the Word of God(Holy Bible) not the Koran or any other religion or man made god. They ultimately want to silence the Christians from speaking the truth and about Jesus Christ, the only ans true God. They call it hate speech but the fact of the matter is they hate the truth. | No I do not |
2025-01-12 21:51:28 +02:00 | Johan | No I do not | All of the above | In general, passing this bill with limited and predjudiced consequences for political speech (especially those inciting racial hatred and trashing our constitution) as shown in the past few years, makes this law meningless and a public laughing stock. | Yes I do |
2025-01-12 16:17:49 +02:00 | Mark | Not fully | The broad definition of hate speech | No I do not | |
2025-01-11 20:52:44 +02:00 | Brenden | No I do not | All of the above | Yes I do | |
2025-01-10 22:06:49 +02:00 | Carmen | No I do not | Constitutionality of the Bill | No I do not | |
2025-01-10 22:06:48 +02:00 | Carmen | No I do not | Constitutionality of the Bill | No I do not |
Comments as delivered to the Presidency as of 13 March 2024
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab