Deputy-minister of Justice and Constitutional Development John Jeffery says the idea behind the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill is to detail the specific crime of hate speech and punishments for the offence.
The Bill is before parliament and now also includes the category of hate speech and measures that will be instituted to combat the problem.
Jeffrey says the bill outlines sentences that can be imposed on a person who commits such violations.
“It’s an existing crime that becomes a hate crime because of the motive. That would be particularly if the reason you committed this crime against a person was really just that you didn’t like the group that they belong to. Hate speech though is a new category of crimes- that is basically the things that you say intentionally, publishing, propagating and communicating something that could be possibly construed to demonstrate a clear intention to be harmful, or incite harm and promote or propagate hatred,” explains the deputy-minister.
