Minority rights group AfriForum and Black First Land First leader Andile Mngxitama will on Wednesday face off in the Equality court sitting in the Johannesburg high court to hear a hate speech complaint laid by the former.
AfriForum laid charges against Mngxitama in December, requesting a court ruling that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) should institute an investigation to criminally prosecute him. It also asked that Mngxitama be ordered to pay R500 000 to an organisation which campaigns against hate speech.
The related to Mngxitama's speech during a rally last year in Potchefstroom, North West province, where he threatened to "kill five white people for every black person killed."
"You kill one of us, we will kill five of you. We will kill their children, we will kill their women, we will kill anything that we find on our way," Mngxitama said.
BLF, which has since been de-registered as a political party by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said on Tuesday "all white supremacist organisations" were scared of it.
"The racist AfriForum has taken our organisation to the Equality Court on false charges of hate speech. The right-wing group hopes to silence our organisation through the abuse of the judiciary," it said.
"We responded by saying that black people have a right to self-defence. AfriForum is taking us to court for saying that we have a right to defend ourselves. We shall never be bullied into allowing ourselves to be murdered like chickens."
The South African Human Rights Commission said it received a barrage of complaints against Mngxitama's speech through its social media platforms and urged citizens to refrain from making statements that were derogatory or incited violence.
BLF was de-registered in July after Freedom Front Plus laid a complaint that the organisation was recruiting members based on race. The BLF said at the time it would appeal the IEC decision.
- African News Agency (ANA)
