'Here's a tiny little flag. Is that hate speech?' - lawyer argues on behalf of AfriForum's Ernst Roets
4 September 2019
The Equality Court must accept AfriForum deputy CEO Ernst Roets' version stating why he tweeted a picture of the apartheid flag - after a court ruling banning its gratuitous display, his lawyer has argued.
Senior counsel Cedric Puckrin submitted that Roets was not being sarcastic when he tweeted the picture along with the question: "Did I just commit hate speech? ".
"The question [posted on Twitter], is not a rhetorical question. Here's a tiny little flag. Is that hate speech? And he gets feedback," Puckrin asked.
He was arguing in the Equality Court, sitting in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, on Wednesday, in an urgent contempt of court application the Nelson Mandela Foundation had lodged against Roets.