By Dr Masimba Mavaza
London. (News of The South) – We need to clarify what is protected speech under the constitution and what is not – and the courts need a guide to define that boundary ‘The emotional state of the audience matters and a population is more receptive to inciting speakers during times of political instability, insecurity and economic austerity.’
The challenge with the South African President is that he has no ideas of how to take South Africa forward. It is a clear fact that when one is not innovative he finds a weakest link to shift the blame. so the South African president is trying to dodge the problems by transferring the blame to the foreigners, his is a clear lack of creativity and trying to hide behind the finger, unfortunately the finger is too small to cover the person of the president and his failures.
The events in South Africa are not favouring the incumbent. Eskom is in big trouble and no reasonable measures taken to alleviate the problems at Eskom. The South African economy is not growing as to match the skills being acquired by its citizens. There is an extra burden on the economy caused by the number of South Africans who are now graduating and not willing to take blue collar jobs. The foreigners on the other hand have taken any job regardless of their qualifications. In actual fact the foreigners in South Africa are contributing very much to the ailing economy.
The president Ramaposa is at a big loss as he has become clueless in steering the country forward. This ignorance has played in the hands of Comrade Malema who is vibrant and his popularity has grown since last elections.
Foreigners from Zimbabwe are working in farms and some are maids in the houses of their hosts. Most of those engaging in cheap labour are qualified teachers, doctors, accountancy, and lawyers and many more professionals whose sole aim is to work for their families. Making a bold statement that they just come and settle themselves illegally and start businesses illegally is a statement from the devil. How can a foreigner who has no knowledge of the area just plant himself in an area new to him to just start a business.
It is clear that the South African economic growth trajectory is nothing but wishful thinking. Their economy is nose diving and with the volatile situation being created by the president it will go deeper.
A company in Durban has rested all foreign drivers and called for the South Africans ones to come and apply for the driving jobs. They are still waiting for South African drivers. Those who came had no HGV drivers licence otherwise known as class 2 driver’s license.
The opposition president commander Julius Malema had urged President Ramaphosa to withdraw inflammatory statements he has issued. Malema was quoted as saying ANC president must withdraw statements over our African brothers in South Africa.
He Malema calls for ANC to withdraw statements that he issued over foreigners which have caused some unrest in the country in some areas. Speaking out at a lunch time meeting Malema said “we want to remind South Africans that for us to enjoy fruits of today it was help of other countries like Nigeria where school children contributed money to fund ANC and Zimbabwe where the likes of president Mbeki where exiled, and Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania, ANC used to have an office in Tanzania. Ramaphosa was just a police officer of apartheid and a trade unionist he does not know what it means to be in exile that’s why he issues statements without thinking” Malema said.
This isn’t normal political discord any more. It’s not even “just” hate speech. Political speech has now veered into an even more dangerous terrain: incitement. Malema implored the South Africans to stop the violence on fellow black brothers. He reminded them that Africans are our brothers and sisters. Xenophobic attacks are uncalled for it is a criminal offense to attack a black brother. Malema proceeded to say in his government there will be no discrimination of African brothers by their country of origin. He yearned for a united African continent with people sharing what the mother land gives them. The law protects freedom of expression, but inciting another person to commit assault or murder is in itself a crime, and has been so since the founding of our republic. Standing incitement law requires that a speaker intentionally advocate the commission of a crime, where such advocacy is directed at producing “imminent lawless action” and is likely to incite the crime being encouraged. This is a high bar and was consciously designed to allow nearly all political speech, including hate speech.
In Ramaphosa’s speech it took just two days there was blood on the streets. Black foreign workers were killed some had their hands amputated and some died a very painful death by burning.
Yet as political speech has pushed right up against this bar, there has been no proliferation of incitement challenges in courts.
May be it is time that the courts be engaged and Ramaphosa be disqualified for inciting violence, discrimination and death to the innocent people. He has seriously breached peace and he very well knew that the country needed just a small push to ignite it. Now fires sporadic but burning. The stakes in this case are high – balancing free speech with public safety – yet incitement law is frustratingly murky.
Prince Mashela from the Sowetan times wrote this “in the midst of the political confusion that has gripped our country many people are wondering if we have come to the end of South Africa” he continued “the answer is simple. The thing called an end does not exist, not in relation to a country. South Africa will be there long after its leader is gone.—— Now that we have reclaimed our place as another African country we must reflect on and come to terms with our real character and imagine what our future portends.” South Africa needs to come to reality and stop this supremacy hot air. Nothing special about being ZULU we are all Africans yet the Zulus are the ones who instigate the mass murder of people having been encouraged by the president.
Neuroscience experiments show how denigrating speech against an out-group can facilitate inhumane acts. we need to look no further but to look in South Africa to see how people have interpreted the president’s words and the consequences caused by such reckless speech. Dehumanizing language (e.g., calling a person an “ape” or “cockroach”) had significant effects, but speeches that referenced past crimes and called for revenge had the greatest effect on participants’ willingness to countenance violence. Telling people that their suffering is being caused by the foreigners is simply telling them to stretch their hands and reach for the throat of foreigners. Repetition often works: a statement repeated across a variety of mass communication formats, from radio to television to social media, is more likely to be believed, even if it is patently false. The emotional state of the audience matters and a population is more receptive to inciting speakers during times of political instability, insecurity and economic austerity.
.Finally, an incitement to violence is more likely to be acted on if the speaker declares that there is a direct existential threat to the audience and identifies a distinct course of action to remove the threat.
Many of the factors identified above apply to the stream of coded and explicit rhetoric from the current administration and substantiate the claim that President Ramaphosa has repeatedly incited imminent lawless action. As a result hundred have been killed thousands have been displaced. The police had kept silent and turned sideways as foreigners scream for help under the diabolic sadist’s attackers.
Assembled into a checklist, these factors could provide the nations as they assess the gravity of a speech act and its likelihood of triggering violence. For incitement law to function at all, one must define the boundary between protected speech and unprotected speech that incites a crime.
The violence on other African brothers is unprecedented in South Africa. The South Africans are forgetting that the so called foreigners have brought employment and boosted the economy. It is a great shame that the whole president incites his people to breach the peace of the nation.
We shall never forget and we will never forget if every South African is stopped from visiting around Africa it will be unreasonable. An eye for an eye makes the world blind. We need to forgive the cruel masses of South Africa. It is true that in some South Africans there are some with a heart. There are human beings who are human.
God is for us all.
vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk
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