Cape Town - The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill which will, among others, fight crimes perpetrated against members of the LGBTQIA+ community is a few steps from being made into law.
The National Assembly adopted the Bill which has been sent to the National Council of Provinces.
The Bill seeks to address the increasing number of incidents motivated by prejudices in the form of hate crimes and hate speech and to assist people who are victims of and harmed by such speech. When passed into law, the Bill will create the offences of hate crimes and hate speech and put measures in place to prevent and combat these offences.
The Hate Crimes Working Group SA, a network of civil society organisations, said this was a major step in the long-awaited legislative process.
The group said it hoped that when the Bill was passed into law it would send a strong message that hate and prejudice were unacceptable and would assist the police and prosecutors in investigating, charging, and prosecuting hate crimes and hate speech.
Hate Crimes Working Group SA chairperson Sibusiso Khasa said that with the recent spike in hate crimes, particularly against migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and LGBTQI+ communities, the passing of the Bill was more urgent than ever.
Same Love Toti founder and director Kim Lithgow said she believed the Bill would save lives.
“We feel that this will be a fantastic tool in South Africa to curb hate crime and hate speech. We have seen this type of legislation working in other countries. This legislation will send a strong message to people who commit hate crimes that this will no longer be tolerated.
“It will lead to the training of the South African police force to teach them how to implement this Bill and how to cut out secondary victimisation. It will also serve as a way to record the extent of the problem that we have with hate and bias in our society. Once we have that type of data, we can then work on prevention measures and will raise awareness and work towards building a more cohesive and inclusive society,” she said.
Lithgow said Same Love Toti was confident the National Council of provinces would adopt the Bill, as she believed South Africa was committed to upholding its international human rights obligations.