By Umamah Bakharia

In Johannesburg, the Equality Court has found the Black First Land First (BLF) spokesperson, Lindsay Maasdorp and secretary Zwelakhe Dubasi guilty of hate speech.

The trade union, Solidarity and parents of children who died during a disaster at Hoërskool Driehoek, took the BLF to court following remarks on social media.

This was in response to a 2019 incident where a concrete slab fell on 26 pupils, killing four of them and injuring several.

BLF members said, among other things, that the death of the children was a divine intervention that got rid of three future problems.

Radio Islam speaks to Solidarity’s Legal Head Anton van der Bijl on the case judgement.

“It will never be able to heal the parents but we needed to take the matter on to make a statement as this cannot be accepted,” says van der Bijl.

The judge ordered that the remarks made by the BLF amounted to hate speech to which an interdict was issued towards BLF to not repeat the remarks that were made targeting the deceased and injured.

The BLF was also ordered to pay R50 000 to each of the four deceased children within 30 days.

The court stated: “There can be no greater advocacy of hatred than to rejoice and celebrate the death of innocent children because of the fate relating to the colour of their skin.”