Abstract
The jurisdiction, or competence of the Equality Court to hear a dispute concerning alleged hate speech is affected by various jurisdictional factors. The decision in South African Human Rights Commission v Khumalo EQ6-2016, EQ1-2018 2018 ZAGPJHC 528; 2019 1 SA 289 (GJ); 2019 1 All SA 254 (GJ) reveals several shortcomings in the provisions regulating jurisdiction in the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 which must be attended to in order to provide clarity and legitimacy in regard to the application of the protection against hate speech.
Highlights
Jurisdiction means the competence of a court, forum or tribunal to entertain a case between parties
In terms of the settlement agreement Khumalo apologised for making the utterance, paid R30 000 to a charity organisation and presented three hour-long talks at schools.19. Unaware of this first referral, the SAHRC lodged a second complaint against Khumalo in the Johannesburg High Court sitting as the Equality Court, this time in terms of the hate speech provision as contained in section 10 of the PEPUDA.20
Should the SAHRC provide reasons within its discretion for declining to refer the dispute based on hate speech to the Equality Court, a petition procedure should be available to complainants
Summary
Jurisdiction means the competence of a court, forum or tribunal to entertain a case between parties. He questions whether a need exists for the introduction of a new criminal statute devised to punish hate speech. It is important to have clarity on the issue of which court or forum has jurisdiction to entertain a matter to save legal costs and to ensure the expeditious resolution of disputes This would promote the right to access to justice as envisaged in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (the Constitution) and the aim of the PEPUDA to resolve disputes expeditiously..
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