South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday assented to the Preventing and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, which criminalizes the offenses of hate crimes and hate speech in the country.
According to the president’s office, under the new law, a hate crime is found “if a person commits any recognised offence under any law that is motivated by prejudice or intolerance on the basis of one or more characteristics or perceived characteristics of the victim, as listed in the legislation or a family member of the victim.” Crimes against a victim’s association with or support for a person with one or more of the listed characteristics or a group of persons who share these characteristics is also prohibited under the law.
Hate speech refers to a person intentionally publishing, propagating, advocating, sharing or communicating anything to one or more persons “in a manner that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to be harmful or to incite harm and to promote or propagate hatred based on defined grounds.” The law also applies to hate speech disseminated in electronic communications. The law provides for effective enforcement measures and the gathering and recording of data on hate crimes and hate speech.
The president’s office stated that the new law is giving effect to South Africa’s obligations under its Constitution and international human rights instruments. Section 9 of the Constitution of South Africa prohibits “direct or indirect unfair discrimination against anyone on the grounds of race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.”
The law provides several exceptions for free-speech concerns, including artistic creativity, performance or other form of expression, academic or scientific inquiry, fair and accurate reporting or commentary in the public interest, and interpretation and articulating or espousing of any religious conviction, tenet, belief, teaching, doctrine or writing that does not advocate hatred or constitute incitement to cause harm. It has nevertheless attracted criticism from some for its restrictions on freedom of speech. Georgia Du Plessis, Legal Officer at ADF International, a conservative Christian advocacy group, previously commented that, “This legislation violates international legal protections for free speech, and likely will lead to innumerable human rights abuses by censoring free speech, including peaceful expression, with criminal penalties.”
Introduced in Parliament in 2018, the Bill was passed by the National Assembly and by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in March and November 2023 respectively.
