The South African Human Rights Commission has called for a R150 000 fine against Velaphi Khumalo, wholly suspended for a year, for his posts on Facebook advocating for the killing of white people following the Penny Sparrow case.
Khumalo, who works for the Gauteng Department of Sports and Recreation, was taken to the Equality Court after his 2016 Facebook posts. The post also slandered Jews. The Human Rights Commission wants the Court, which is sitting at the South Gauteng High Court, to also declare Khumalo’s utterances as hate speech.
Khumalo’s Facebook posts were put up in response to Penny Sparrow’s racism case. Khumalo advocated for the persecution of white people in the same way the Jews were persecuted by Hitler saying that he now believed all white people were racist. Khumalo, who is also an ANC member, reached an out of court settlement with the ANC where he was fined R30000 and was given a final written warning.
He was also ordered to apologize to the party and the provincial government. The Human Rights Commission want a further sanction arguing that the ANC was a friendly complainant. Khumalo now says that his statements did not constitute hate speech. It is up to the NPA to pursue a criminal case.
