Solidarity announces legal action against BLF for the remarks it had made
14 February 2019
Solidarity today announced at a press conference that it would press charges on behalf of several parents of victims of the Hoërskool Driehoek school disaster against members of the Black First Land First (BLF) with the SAPS, as well as bringing charges before the Equality Court. Solidarity also said that, apart from those charges, it had also lodged a complaint with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), requesting that the BLF not be allowed to participate in the coming election.
According to Solidarity Chief Executive Dr Dirk Hermann, Solidarity received a mandate from several of the affected parents to institute legal action against the BLF and its leaders.
“As a parent and a South African I am absolute appalled by the BLF members’ remarks and by Lindsay Maasdorp’s delighting in and celebrating the news on social media that four white children had died in the accident,” Lucille Olivier, one of the parents in the school community said.
This comes after Lindsay Maasdorp, the BLF’s spokesperson celebrated the death of three young persons: “I would ‘mourn’ the deaths of the victims if they turned out to be black but ‘celebrate’ them if they were white.” He also added: “If our God has finally intervened and our ancestors have petitioned and seen that these white land thieves have now died then I definitely celebrate it. I celebrate the death of our enemies, their children, their cats and their dogs. That is our position.”
Hermann emphasised that racial hatred expressed by fringe figures cannot be merely ignored. If ignored, it will become the norm. “The legal system is designed for the exception, not the norm. It was specifically designed for people like Maasdorp. The legal system metes out punishment so that the next unknown victim of the fringe figure can be protected. We need to prevent any more innocent victims from experiencing pain and tears caused by the BLF’s racial hatred,” Hermann summarised.
Lucille Olivier said today at the media conference that words cannot describe the pain they all feel. She rightly added that this tragedy was definitely not a tragedy defined by race. “White and black children were hurt; white and black children cried together. All of them are our children and the tragedy affected all of us,” Olivier said.
According to Hermann, Solidarity’s legal action will be threefold. The trade union will begin with a charge of crimen injuria. This charge will be laid at 12:00 today at the Vanderbijlpark SAPS. The focus of this charge will be on the illicit, intentional and serious prejudice of another person’s dignity. “In this case it also involves racial incitement and adverse remarks with regard to the race of these victims,” Hermann said.
Secondly, Solidarity will lay a charge at the Equality Court in terms of section 10 of the Equality Act, which focuses on the prohibition of hate speech. In the third charge to be submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission, Solidarity will request that the BLF be deregistered as a political party. “Parties making statements based on racial hatred do not belong in a democratic election,” Hermann said.
To read the criminal charge, click here.
To read the complaint to the equality court, click here.
Issued by Francois Redelinghuys, Spokesperson, Solidarity, 14 February 2019
