EFF racisms and intimidation – The FW de Klerk Foundation lays a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission

10 September 2020

The FW de Klerk Foundation condemns the racist attack and intimidation of innocent bystanders by EFF members at N1 City Shopping Centre on 9 September 2020.

In an incident yesterday, which was captured on video by bystanders and subsequently substantiated by media reports, protesting members of the EFF made racist statements and jostled white bystanders after they were evicted by security personnel from a shopping centre near Cape Town. Upon their exit from the shopping centre the EFF members shouted at bystanders “F**k you white people”. This was followed by numerous further racial outbursts - that included shouting at the bystanders that they were “white racists” and that they must “go back to Europe, you are here to steal our land”.

The video of the incident can be accessed here:

The behaviour of the EFF members is irreconcilable with the foundational value of non-racialism, and may constitute communication that “can reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to (a) be hurtful; (b) be harmful, or to incite harm; and (c) to promote or propagate hatred” - in terms of section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prohibition of Unfair Discrimination Act. Such conduct is completely unacceptable in terms of the core values of the South African Constitution, which include:

(a) Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms;

(b) Non-racialism and non-sexism; and

(c) Supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law.

Overtly racist attacks on South African citizens - particularly by members of a registered political party - pose a serious threat to race relations and to the values on which our new society has been established.

Any propaganda or idea which propounds the racial superiority or inferiority of any person, including incitement to, or participation, in any form of racial violence, must be rejected by all South Africans.

The FW de Klerk Foundation has referred this matter to the South African Human Rights Commission for investigation.

Issued by the FW de Klerk Foundation, 10 September 2020