# summary

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/hate-crimes-and-hate-speech-ncop/summary/
- Published: 2023-04-19T12:33:45+02:00
- Author: dearSA

[ view the campaign](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/hate-crimes-and-hate-speech-ncop/)

View a report on the participation

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Public comments as delivered to parliament 

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### STATEMENTS FROM CIVIL ORGANISATIONS

Click on a logo to view.

![Click to view ForSA's statement](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/
uploads/2023/04/19160349/forsa-logo-small.png "Click to view ForSA's statement")

![Free Speech Union South Africa](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/
2023/04/29140110/fsu-logo-copy.png "fsu-logo copy")

![click to view a statement from Same Love Toti](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.
za/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/11151201/Banner-Same-Love-Toti-logo-sml.jpg "Banner
Same Love Toti logo-sml")

![click to view a statement fro Pastor Strike](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/
wp-content/uploads/2023/05/18102724/bold-moves-radio-2.jpg "bold moves radio")

Want to display your organisation’s statement? [Click here. ](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/hate-crimes-and-hate-speech-ncop/summary/ hchs@dearsouthafrica.co.za?subject=org info for hate speech info page)

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### Bold Moves Radio

 [visit Bold Moves Radio here](http://boldmovesradio.org.za/)

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### Same Love Toti

### Same Love Toti is a LGBTQI+ human rights based organisation — _visit their website 󠀁[here](http://pflagsouthafrica.org/)󠁿_

Serving on the steering committee for the Hate Crimes Working Group, they are one
of many contributors to the content and the wording of this bill. Research on hate
and bias started in 2009, data collection stretched from 2013-2017, with many debates
with relevant communities and government departments.

The bill was submitted in 2018 and allowed to lapse, and it was re-submitted where
finally this year it was passed by the National Assembly.

Now it is with the National Council of Provinces who have sent it out for public
comment, and the deadline is 22nd May 2023.

This is our last chance to have our say. Our last chance to make our voices heard.

We need the bill because vulnerable groups are being targeted. The body count is
constantly rising, coupled with secondary victimisation,
 exacerbated by a general
lack of respect for diversity and the individual’s right to self-determination.

There are 4 parts to this bill: Prevention, justice, hate crime and hate speech.

 1.  a. The prevention part lays the onus on the state to educate the public about the
        need for diversity and respect of human rights in all areas of society.
     b. The justice part lays the responsibility on the state to take a strong stand against
        bias, and ensure the safety of those within its jurisdiction.
     c. The hate crime part lays out the legal consequences of violence and human rights
        abuses, based in bias against any of the protected groups.
     d. The hate speech part addresses non-physical forms of human rights abuses and the
        legal consequences thereof.

This bill will cause the state to drive awareness campaigns, train government officials,
SAPS, the judiciary, medical personnel and other stakeholders,
 how to implement
the bill and how to ensure the dignity of each individual is respected. Essentially
it will increase social cohesion and acceptance of those who are different in any
way.

This bill will also provide justice to the victims of hate crime and hate speech,
and demonstrate the state’s commitment to our constitutional ideals.
 Some have 
voiced concerns over freedom of speech and freedom of religion being threatened,
but this is unfounded. All freedoms are protected in this bill.

We also need this bill in South Africa to gather statistical data which will then
allow for strategic planning to eliminate discrimination and bias in the country.

_Submit your own emails to HateCrimesBill9B-2018@parliament.gov.za or add your name
to our submission on samelovetoti@gmail.com_

**Show your support for this bill. It’s time to make your voice heard!”**

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### Freedom of Religion SA (FOR SA)

 TEMPLATE PROVIDED BY FOR SA

### I strongly oppose the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill [B9B – 2018], which I believe to be unconstitutional and unnecessary, for the following reasons:

 1. 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:
 3.  a. wide definition of “harm” (in Clause 1);
     b. the failure to define “hatred” (in Clause 1); and
     c. definition of, and creation of, the crime of “hate speech” (in Clause 4).
 4. 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.
 5. There are already sufficient existing laws dealing with “hate speech”.
 6. For all of the reasons given, I ask:
 7.  a. For the scrapping of the “hate speech” sections from the Bill altogether;
     b. Alternatively, should the “hate speech” provisions remain part of the Bill, we
        ask:
     c.  a. That “harm” be defined as: “gross emotional and psychological detriment that 
            objectively and severely undermines the human dignity of the targeted group”;
            and
         b. 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”.
     d. That Clause 4(2)(d) (the “religious exemption clause”) be strengthened as follows
        to protect:
         _“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”._

OBJECTS OF BILL
 The primary aim of the Bill is to create the offences of hate crimes
and hate speech and to put in place measures to prevent and combat these offences.

FOR SA’s Legal Advisor, Liesl Pretorius, discusses the **concerns with criminalising
speech in a democracy**. Such criminalisation is proposed by the Prevention and 
Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill. The Bill proposes criminalising expressions
it deems to be “hate speech”, suggesting jail sentence of up to eight (8) years.

FOR SA’s Legal Advisor, Liesl Pretorius, discusses the failure to define **“hatred”**
in the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill. The Bill proposes
criminalising expressions it deems to be “hate speech” suggesting jail sentence 
of up to eight (8) years.

FOR SA’s Legal Advisor, Liesl Pretorius, discusses the wide definition of **“harm”**
in the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill. Harm is one
of the elements for an expression to be deemed to be “hate speech” by the Bill.

FOR SA’s Legal Advisor, Daniela Ellerbeck, discusses how the Prevention and Combating
of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill will make it **easier for you to be found guilty
of the crime of hate speech and go to jail,** than to be ordered to apologise or
pay a fine under the Equality Act

FOR SA’s Legal Advisor, Daniela Ellerbeck, discusses how the version of the Prevention
and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill currently in front of Parliament,
is **a throwback to Apartheid-era legislation** which saw the State censor speech
and jail people.

FOR SA’s Legal Advisor, Daniela Ellerbeck, discusses how the version of the Prevention
and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill currently in front of Parliament,**
fails to protect religious speech adequately.**

**Same Love Toti** — Talk about The Prevention and Combatting of Hate Crime and 
Hate Speech Bill

BACKGROUND
 The founding provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa, 1996, in section 1, set out certain basic values, amongst others, human 
dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms
and non-racialism and non-sexism. The Bill of Rights, in section 9 of the Constitution,
prohibits direct or indirect unfair discrimination against anyone on the grounds
set out in section 9(3) of the Constitution, namely, race, gender, sex, pregnancy,
marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability,
religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth. The Bill of Rights, in
section 10, gives everyone the right to dignity and, in section 12, gives everyone
the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right to be 
free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources. In section
16, the Bill of Rights gives everyone the right to freedom of expression. This right
is, however, limited in that it does not extend to propaganda for war, incitement
to imminent violence or advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender
or religion, which constitutes incitement to cause harm. The State must, in terms
of section 7(2) of the Constitution, ‘‘respect, protect, promote and fulfil the 
rights in the Bill of Rights’’. 

It is against this backdrop that the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and
Hate Speech Bill (‘‘the Bill’’) has its origins. The Bill is intended to address
frequently occurring and sometimes violent conduct of persons who are motivated 
by clear and defined prejudices.

Summary – Memorandum of Objects

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The Bill

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Schedule

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Encourage participation with this poster/flyer – distribute or place at the office

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### In the media

 * DailyMaverick — [Free speech is the best weapon against hate speech (Sara Gon)](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2023-04-12-free-speech-is-the-best-weapon-against-hate-speech/)
 * IOL — [Adoption of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill welcomed](https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/adoption-of-hate-crimes-and-hate-speech-bill-welcomed-39937d73-e584-45de-b1b8-af9714ead5f7)