Hate Crimes and Hate Speech NCOP

Have your say on the Hate Speech and Hate Crimes Bill
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The Select Committee on Security and Justice invited the public to comment on the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill

    • to give effect to the Republic’s obligations in terms of the Constitution and international human rights instruments concerning racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, in accordance with international law obligations;
    • to provide for offences as hate crimes and the offence of hate speech and the prosecution of persons who commit those offences;
    • to provide for appropriate sentences that may be imposed on persons who commit hate crime and hate speech offences;
    • to provide for the prevention of hate crimes and hate speech;
    • to provide for the reporting on the implementation, application and administration of this Act;
    • to effect consequential amendments to certain Acts of Parliament.

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    In this video, FOR SA’s Executive Director, Michael Swain, sets out SIX important reasons why citizens who care about faith and freedom of expression must take this FINAL opportunity to have their say and make their voices heard. Deadline for comment extended to Monday 22 May 2023.

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    Objection – provided by FoR SA. Feel free to copy and paste.

    I oppose the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill [B9B – 2018], for the following reasons:

    1. I am concerned that the Bill violates our constitutional rights as religious persons to express our religious beliefs without fear of punishment or persecution (section 15, read with section 16). Increasingly, around the world but also in South Africa, various holy scriptures (particularly on contentious issues) are regarded as “politically incorrect” or “offensive”, allegedly causing emotional and/or social harm.
    2. I specifically oppose the Bill’s:
      1. wide definition of “harm” (in Clause 1);
      2. the failure to define “hatred” (in Clause 1); and
      3. definition of, and creation of, the crime of “hate speech” (in Clause 4).
    3. I am concerned that the creation of the crime of “hate speech” for saying / distributing something which could possibly be construed as “harmful”, will have certain unintended consequences, namely the criminalisation of good / well-meaning people who will be prosecuted for saying what they sincerely believe (according to their holy texts) and sent to jail.
    4. There are already sufficient existing laws dealing with “hate speech”.
    5. For all of the above reasons, I strongly oppose this Bill which I believe to be unconstitutional and unnecessary, and I ask:
      1.   For the scrapping of the “hate speech” sections from the Bill altogether; Alternatively, should the “hate speech” provisions remain part of the Bill, we ask:
        1. That “harm” be defined as: “gross emotional and psychological detriment that objectively and severely undermines the human dignity of the targeted group”; and
        2. That “hatred” be defined as: “strong and deeply-felt emotions of enmity, ill-will, detestation, malevolence and vilification against members of an identifiable group, that implies that members of that group are to be despised, scorned, denied respect and subjected to ill-treatment based on their group affiliation”.
        3. That Clause 4(2)(d) (the “religious exemption clause”) be strengthened as follows:
          “expression of any religious conviction, tenet, belief, teaching, doctrine or writings, by a religious organisation or an individual, in public or in private, to the extent that such expression does not actively support, instigate, exhort, or call for extreme detestation, vilification, enmity, ill-will and malevolence that constitutes incitement to cause gross emotional and psychological harm that severely undermines the dignity of the targeted group, based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation”.