For his factual accuracy, Hofmeyr is going to be charged with “hate speech”, more specifically crimen injuria, an old form of criminal defamation in South Africa that has been used over the past few years to prosecute mainly whites for “hate speech”.
The country’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), issued a statement announcing that they would lay a charge of crime injuria against Steve Hofmeyr at a police station for “his racist and inhumane rants on Social Media which smacks or barbarism, racism and toxic masculinity”.
In one of her tweets, Zindzi Mandela referred to being “wined and dined” in Denmark and said:
“Whilst I wine and dine here ..wondering how the world of shivering land thieves is doing #OurLand.”
The ruling ANC has adopted a policy considering all farmland belonging to white farmers as “stolen land” on the grounds that white people, even if they bought land from a previous seller, do not really own it as they are not racial Africans.
In previous cases where white people were convicted of hate speech against a black person, they have received fines of about 10 000 euros or prison sentences up to three years.
Initially the ANC had announced that they would lay the charge against Hofmeyr on Thursday, but they have now issued an update that it would take place on Monday 24 June.
According to the ANC, Hofmeyr’s tweet “demonstrates white arrogance and is a textbook example of white privilege which must be nipped in the bud”.
A legal expert, Albert Murphy called the ruling party a joke. “The purported criminal charges that the ANC wants to lodge against Steve Hofmeyr on the basis of a tweet from him about Zindzi Mandela is a farce!
“There is absolutely nothing criminal about the tweet and no prosecutor worth anything will press those charges. The ANC is a joke.”
Mandela’s tweets from Denmark on 13 and 14 June 2019 revealed similar racial threats: “When you came here without land you found the original people making fire. Next you’ll claim you taught us. Just like Chris Barnard learnt the basics of heart surgery from his Black gardener. What you’re good at is fantasy.”
“Dear Apartheid Apologists, your time is over. You will not rule again. We do not fear you. Finally #TheLandIsOurs”
“Miss all these trembling white cowards, shem [I pity them]. Botha, Potgieter, Thieving Rapist descendants of Van Riebeeck, etc: how are you my babies?”
It is worth noting that 84 percent of black land claims in South Africa are filed in urban areas and 93 percent of land claimants choose financial compensation rather than land.
Zindzi Mandela’s racist tweets have caused a stir in the country. But the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Luzuko Koti told Johanneburg English daily The Star: “We never said we wanted to meet Zindzi Mandela to discuss her tweets.”
But when Koti later spoke to Afrikaans-language Sunday weekly Rapport, he said: “We want to meet with Mrs Mandela and understand where she is coming from.”
