Settlement expected in Edward Zuma's R100k hate speech case

Edward Zuma and the South African Human Rights Commission are expected to reach a settlement in a hate speech case before the Durban Equality Court.

Shortly before the matter against former president Jacob Zuma's son‚ Edward‚ was expected to commence on Tuesday‚ magistrate Irfaan Khalil told journalists that the matter was delayed as both parties were discussing a settlement. He said he was prepared to finalise the case on Tuesday.

Zuma does not need to be present in court as his legal representatives were in attendance‚ Khalil said.

The commission applied to the court last year to find Zuma guilty of hate speech and fined him R100‚000 for an open letter to ministers Pravin Gordhan and Derek Hanekom in 2017.

In the letter Zuma described Gordhan and Hanekom as "anti majoritarian sell-out minority in the ANC who have brazenly and unabashedly spoken out against (President) Zuma on various white monopoly media platforms".

He said Gordhan was one of the most corrupt cadres who‚ as Gandhi‚ "sees black South Africans as low class k…...s" while Hanekom was a "white askari who will do anything to be an obstacle to radical economic transformation and to defend white monopoly privileges."

In her affidavit‚ the commission's KwaZulu-Natal manager Tanuja Munnoo said Zuma's utterances painted the pair as proponents of white minority privilege and opponents of socio-economic transformation.

"It paints them as the enemy of the majority of the people of this country. It contributes to the alienation of the target community and conveys a particularly divisive message that the Afrikaner and Indian people are less deserving of respect and dignity."