The South African Institute of Race Relations on Tuesday lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) against National Director of Public Prosecutions advocate Menzi Simelane over comments made in an article in the Sunday Times that it says were racist.
In a Sunday Times article published on September 4 under the headline, “Simelane moots law for racist crimes“, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head calls for legislation that will punish those committing race crimes — with specific reference to South Africans found to be inciting racial hatred on social networks and the internet as a whole.
Simelane said such legislation would detect “those acts which, in their commission, exhibit blatant racism or actions which society finds repugnant in their racial bias”.
He also went onto suggest that most race crimes were perpetrated by white people against blacks.
“In all or most of these crimes, black people are victims. It is also a fact that the perpetrators are mostly white men. Our courts are full of people like these,” he is quoted as saying.
The race relations institute said the comments showed prejudice towards whites.
“The institute is of the view that these comments are racist, could incite racial hatred, and unfairly discriminate against whites. [The institute] has asked the Human Rights Commission to investigate the comments and secure appropriate redress,” said the institute’s deputy chief executive, Frans Cronje.
Simelane’s remarks followed a controversial article titled “Wanted: Facebook racist” published in the Sunday Times on August 28.
The story details how an investigation was launched by the Hawks into the posting of a racist photograph on a Facebook profile. The image shows a white man holding a rifle while standing over the seemingly lifeless body of a young black child.
The Sunday Times was lashed on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook for publishing what was seen to be old news as the photo’s existence was reported on previously by several newspapers and radio stations, including the Mail & Guardian.
NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga issued a statement acknowledging the complaint, noting that Simelane would continue to comment on “issues that are reflective of the society we live in”.
“Robust debate on such hard issues is an ingredient of a live and thriving democracy and this is a right that is enshrined in our constitution,” said Mhaga. “Racism is one of the issues that he [Simelane] strongly feels the whole country should debate in an endeavour to eradicate it,”
Mhaga added that Simelane would only comment once he had received official notice of the complaint and studied it accordingly.