Cape Town – Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha says the department will soon introduce a piece of legislation aimed at combating racism and hate speech.
The Minister said this when he briefed the media ahead of tabling the department’s Budget Vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
He said the introduction of the legislation was in line with former President Nelson Mandela’s signing of the Constitution in 1996, where he set the country on a path to build a society that respects constitutional rights and in the process, dismantling apartheid laws characterised by racial oppression, intolerance and discrimination of the majority of the citizens by the minority.
“In this spirit, we must all rise to deal with all forms of intolerances to consolidate our democracy.
“As a department, we will soon introduce legislation which will address racism and in particular, hate speech,” he said.
The announcement comes after several high profile incidents of racism and discrimination made headlines late last year and early this year – most on social media – where in some cases, individuals lost their jobs because of racist utterances.
These incidents led to President Jacob Zuma announcing during his State of the Nation Address that Human Rights Day (21 March) would be dedicated to advocating against racism. The President also emphasised the need for the country to commemorate the day by promoting nation building and social cohesion.
On Tuesday, Minister Masutha said his department has also developed and released the draft National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances, with the full approval of Cabinet, for public comment.
He said many sectors of society have already come forward to share their views on the draft of the National Action Plan.
Minister Masutha encouraged all South Africans to make their inputs to the draft plan.
“In addition, we are currently expanding the provisions of a draft bill to [address] hate crimes to include hate speech, which will be introduced in Parliament later this year.
“This will help bolster existing legislative measures notably under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act and other related laws,” he said.
Amendment to protect consumers against garnish orders
The Minister said, meanwhile, that an amendment was being made to several laws to protect consumers against unscrupulous default judgments by debt collectors.
“The Courts of Law Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Magistrates’ Court Act of 1994 in order to address abuses in the emoluments attachment order (EAO) system and to amend the Superior Court Amendment Act, 2013, so as to provide the rescission of judgment with the consent of the judgment creditor in the High Court,” he said.
The Minister said that in the main, the amendment is intended to alleviate the plight of debtors who find themselves at the receiving end of abuse in the debt collecting system of the magistrates’ courts.
NPA conviction rate on the rise
The Minister said, meanwhile, that the department was encouraged by the success of the criminal justice system in dealing with crime and corruption.
“The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) conviction rate has shown a remarkable 14.1% overall increase.
“In particular, during 2015/16, the NPA recorded an 82% conviction rate in trio crimes (hijacking, house robberies and business robberies), 88% in organised crime and 94% in complex commercial crimes.
“In respect of sexual offences, the conviction rate stands at 70%, an increase of 6% from the 64% obtained in the previous financial year.
“The fight against sexual violence on our streets and in our homes has been intensified with the reintroduction of the Sexual Offences Courts in 2013,” he said.
He said the department has since upgraded 46 regional courts into sexual offences courtrooms and these will be specifically designed to deal with the delicate handling of sexual offences through the use of technologies, intermediaries and appropriate court environment for dealing with sexual offences. – SAnews.gov.za