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- The SAHRC is investigating more than 20 complaints related to a controversial matrix dance party and the subsequent fight at Brackenfell.
- Twelve of them are related to EFF supporters who sang “Shoot the Boer” outside the school on November 6 during a protest.
- The PAC will be brought to the Equality Court after “Un colono, una bala” was chanted at a demonstration last week.
South Africa’s Human Rights Commission says it will take the PAC to Equality Court after “One Settler, One Bullet” was chanted at a Brackenfell protest last week.
It also received 12 complaints against the EFF and was investigating them as well.
READ | Brackenfell High: the city of Cape Town wants the EFF to pay for the damage caused during the protest
More than 20 complaints related to the controversial matrix dance party and the subsequent Brackenfell brawl were under investigation, the South African Human Rights Commission confirmed Tuesday.
Commissioner Andre Gaum said that in addition to his own investigation related to discrimination and alleged exclusion of students at a function only attended by white 12th graders from Brackenfell High School after their formal dance was canceled , a series of complaints specifically related to hate speech.
Twelve were related to EFF supporters who chanted “Shoot the Boer” outside the school on November 6 during a protest, a catchphrase that the SAHRC and the Equality Court have already ruled as hate speech; two against EFF MP Nazier Paulsen for allegedly referring to people of color as “brown pets”; as well as eight after the PAC chanted and used a sign that read “a colonist, a bullet” during a demonstration on November 18.
“The commission is gathering evidence and, on the basis of it, will decide how to prosecute the charges. However, regarding the ‘One Settler, One Bullet’ charges against the PAC, we believe there is a prima facie case that has been made. and will take this matter to the Court of Equality ”, he said.
READ | Brackenfell Arrests: 8 EFF Protesters Released, Due to Return to Court in February
‘Great moderation’
A small group of PAC members protested at Brackenfell station and then on the streets of Brackenfell last Wednesday.
The protest on Friday, where hundreds of EFF members protested against racism in the northern suburb, as well as police conduct, would also be investigated.
Commissioner Chris Nissen said authorities acted with “great restraint” on Friday.
“When people protest it must be peaceful. What many of my colleagues and I saw were people with axes, golf clubs, clubs and stones that, on several occasions, rained down on the police,” he said.
Nissen, however, said that in situations like these, police should “look at the spirit of the law, rather than just the letter of the law.”
“Allowing those people in a very peaceful way probably wouldn’t have had the kind of consequences we saw that day.”
He urged protesters to stay away from schools, as students had the right to take their exams without being traumatized by some of the scenes that unfolded on Friday.
Gaum said that the SAHRC, which had conducted an unannounced site inspection at the school two weeks ago, had written to the provincial education department and the school to respond to the basis of the complaint and had also requested a meeting with them, together with representatives of the student and parent bodies.
Meanwhile, the commission would convene an inquiry into social cohesion and non-racism in schools, as well as a summit on rising racial tensions and racial polarization in South Africa to “respond to the systemic issues that appear to underpin some of the recent events across the country. “
SAHRC Executive Director Tseliso Thipanyane said South Africa could not afford an increase in racial polarization as “it was not the SA that Mandela fought for.”
Nissen said that political parties and their leadership also have a responsibility to build a non-racial society, urging them to “act responsibly” and not “play the race card.”
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