18/01/2016 – Radio Islam News Team

“We enter into a covenant that we shall build a society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without and fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.”

-Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Address, Pretoria 9 May 1994.

The FW de Klerk Foundation has submitted 45 complaints to the SA Human Rights Commission regarding social media postings that it says incite extreme violence against white South Africans.

The Foundation claims that black South Africans are far more violent and racist towards their white compatriots than vice versa.

It has asked the Human Rights Commission to intervene on the issue of racism and hate speech against white South Africans.

The racism storm hit South Africa at the beginning of the New Year and there seem no signs that it is abating.

FW De Klerk Foundation’s Executive Director, Dave Steward says that the recent uproar on the internet showed extremely violent postings from black South Africans, than from white South Africans.

“That doesn’t say that all blacks are more violent than all whites, that’s simply not so”. Steward said.

To help address the situation, the foundation said it had appealed to the South African Human Rights Commission to intervene on the issue of racism and hate speech against white South Africans.

A social media storm has erupted over two separate racist Facebook posts.

Penny Sparrow and Justin Van Vuuren separately insulted black people who were on the Durban beaches over the Christmas period.

Van Vuuren called them animals who must go back to where they came from.

These comments were followed by others online, including economist Chris Hart and radio presenter Gareth Cliff.

Steward says the comments made by Sparrow were repugnant but they were not calling for people to be killed;

“They were not calling for woman to be raped or for children to be killed, so they I think are in a different category”.

He added that the foundation would not hesitate to report or complain to the Human Rights Commission about any posting from anyone who calls for violence against people on the basis of their race.

They then listed 45 posts from social media that marked what it said was the extent of racism and hate speech directed at white South Africans.

Malaven Serage added: “I’m about the total destruction of white people, I’m about the total liberation of black people. I hate white people. I hate my enemy.

Ken Marape said: “Is the sparrow still alive? If that’s the case I’m disappointed in black people from Natal.”

The foundation urged the commission to use “its powers to investigate and to report on the observance of human rights in so far as these messages constitute hate speech in terms of the constitution”.

Stewart says the core purpose of the foundation is to defend the South African Constitution and he believes that the future of all South Africans depend on the ability to abide by the foundational values in the constitution.

“Those values that we know of are; human dignity, the achievement of equality, the advancement of human rights and freedom, non-racialism and non-sexism”.

The foundation also said that the commission should, if it believed it was appropriate, refer communications to the national Director of Public Prosecutions for further consideration.

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