Kill the Boer: What do the courts' rulings mean for our political discourse? →

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In the midst of this political tumult, the Constitutional Court last month dealt a fatal blow to AfriForum's legal efforts to have "Shoot the Boer" (and related words) declared to be hate speech. The timing was somewhat unfortunate, as it seemed to support the claim by Trump's influencers that Afrikaners are systemically persecuted in South Africa and cannot even obtain protection from the courts.

But a closer look at the litigation is warranted.

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The dangers of criminalising defamation (co-authored with Vinayak Bhardwaj) →

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Convictions for criminal defamation have been rare in South Africa over the past century, and rarer still since the advent of our democratic dispensation in which freedom of expression is entrenched as a constitutional right. Nevertheless, Motsepe’s conviction and sentence, currently being appealed in the Johannesburg High Court, raise the chilling spectre of freedom of speech – and press freedom in particular – being inhibited and intimidated by the might of the state. 

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