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Complaint on white women murders rejected

The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) found no violations in the complaint by Steve Hofmeyr, the Freedom Front Plus, and others over statements made about the murder of white women in the country, the commission said on Monday.

"The commission therefore finds that the statement that white women are more likely to be killed by their intimate partners in South Africa does not constitute hate speech and racial discrimination, but is protected expression in terms of the Constitution and South African law," SAHRC spokesman Isaac Mangena said in a statement.

The commission received more than 20 complaints against a group of academics.

"The complaint to the commission was that the academics in question had made statements indicating that South African women had a greater chance of being murdered by their lovers or partners than a black man, and that the comments were tantamount to hate speech," Mangena said.

This followed a series of articles by journalist Nechama Brodie, researcher Lisa Vetten, website Africa Check, and Professor Naeema Abrahams of the Medical Research Council.

The articles provided statistics indicating that the majority of white South African women killed in 2009 and 1999 were killed by their intimate partners.

"The commission considered relevant legislation, jurisprudence of the courts, the context of the comments, the specific statement complained of, the methodology regarding independence of the content of the research and the contextual background thereof, and was unable to classify the type of speech complained of as hate speech or comment which warrants restraint or censure," Mangena said.

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