Complaint lodged

FF Plus lodges complaint with HRC against man who insults white beggar on social media

24 January 2019

The FF Plus lodged a complaint of possible hate speech, racism and discrimination with the South African Human Rights Commission (HRC) against Mr Lindo Buthelezi, the man who used social media to distribute a video of himself in which he insults a white beggar on the street.

In the video, Mr Buthelezi says, among other things, the following:

- “White people are murderers, my man. You`ve killed our forefathers, you are here illegally and you still want me to give you a R2.00. My man I feel disrespected”; 

- “How can you help people who have killed your entire generation and enslaved your people, it’s wrong”; and 

- “but my forefathers will kill me if I had to give a R2.00 to a white guy”.

The FF Plus believes that these statements constitute hate speech, racism and discrimination against white people.

Such statements are racist, polarising and extremely insulting to all white people and is detrimental to social cohesion in South Africa seeing as such views are not representative of the views and values of the majority of the people in South Africa. People who are ignorant, however, could interpret it that way.

The FF Plus expects the HRC to investigate Mr Buthelezi's statements and to take the necessary steps against him in order to prevent similar incidents from taking place in the future.

The FF Plus will fight back against all forms of racism and all attempts to undermine social cohesion in South African society.

Statement issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus Chairperson, 24 January 2019