Twelve people accused of publishing hate speech on Facebook to appear in court
Twelve people accused of publishing hate speech on Facebook are expected to appear in the South Gauteng High Court, sitting as the Equality Court, on Monday.
The legal steps were taken by "The Chinese Association" (TCA) following a series of comments made by individuals which were posted on the Facebook pages of Carte Blanche and the Karoo Donkey Sanctuary in early 2017.
The hate speech being challenged include statements that Chinese people are "not human, are "vile and barbaric", and that South Africa should "get rid" of the Chinese.
Deputy Chairperson of the Chinese Association, Francis Lai Hong says the case is about shining a spotlight on how Chinese people in South Africa face frequent hate speech, particularly on social media.
"There were more that 200 comments against Chinese people of an offensive nature and some of it very violent. So we decided to single out the 12 worst comments and we took these people to the equality court, the other comments were taken to the Human Rights Commission."
"Not acceptable that this kind of offensive and harmful and hateful speech be levelled on us as a community," he said.
