Hate speech preliminary probe into king complete: SAHRC
The South African Human Rights Commission has completed its preliminary investigation into comments made by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini that complainants feel fuelled xenophobic attacks.
31 complaints were received by the commission following a speech by King Zwelithini at a moral rejuvenation event in Pongola in northern KwaZulu-Natal earlier this year.
The king was quoted as having referred to foreign nationals as lice and that they should go back to their home countries.
The complainants alleged the utterances amounted to hate speech and lead to a series of attacks targeting foreign nationals in the province in March.
The commission’s Isaac Mangena says the monarch and the complainants will be given the preliminary report on Monday before it is released to the public.
"We are giving them until the end of January to go through the report and we expect to release the final report by the end of February", he said.
"This process is a regular one, part of our complaints procedures, where we allow both the complainants and the respondents to get hold of the preliminary findings so they may be able to comment", Mangena said.
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