The National Council of Provinces passed the Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill on Wednesday, marking a significant step towards protecting people against hate crimes and hate speech. Basically, if you post or share anything that could be determined to be hate speech, it could land you in jail.
The NCOP passed the bill during a hybrid plenary sitting.
NCOP media liaison, Moloto Mothapo, said the bill was introduced in Parliament in 2018.
Effectively, it protects people against hate crimes and hate speech, particularly those based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or any other form of discrimination.
According to the bill, in Section 3, a hate crime is defined as an offence committed where the offender is motivated by prejudice or intolerance towards the victim of the crime because of specified characteristics or perceived characteristics of the victim or another person associated with the victim.
"These characteristics listed as grounds that could constitute a hate crime include age; albinism; birth; colour; culture; disability; ethnic or social origin; gender or gender identity; HIV status; language; nationality, migrant or refugee status; occupation or trade; political affiliation or conviction; race; religion; sex, which includes intersex; or sexual orientation," Mothapo said.
He further explained that in Section 4 of the bill, hate speech is defined as the intentional publishing or communicating of anything that can incite harm or promote hate based on grounds, including, among others, age, sexual orientation, and race.
"The bill also provides for penalties such as fines, imprisonment, or both for those who are convicted of the offences," Mothapo said.
The NCOP passed the bill with proposed amendments and the bill will be sent back to the Portfolio Committee on Justice to consider the Council’s proposed amendments.
The Bill has been slammed by Freedom Of Religion SA.
FOR SA's Daniela Ellerbeck said the bill remains highly problematic.
"Particularly because the NCOP left unchanged the wide definition of 'harm', which includes subjective and vague concepts. They also failed to define 'hate', which is the quintessential element of the crime of hate speech," she said.
Ellerbeck said the exemption clauses in the Bill for journalists, academics, artists, and religious expression are self-defeating and offer very little real protection, yet the NCOP also left them unchanged.
She said the net effect is that the bill criminalises what should be constitutionally protected speech.
“It indefensibly erodes the fundamental right to freedom of expression, including religious expression,” Ellerbeck said.
Next, the bill will be sent to Parliament’s first house, the National Assembly, to decide if it accepts or rejects the amendment proposed by the NCOP. If the NA subsequently passes the bill, it will be sent to the President for his assent, whereupon it will become law.
IOL