Hate Speech Bill discussion postponed after revelation that Department of Justice failed to consider all public submissions

Public submissions not duly considered on Hate Speech Bill

ChristianView Network welcomes the postponement of discussions on the dangerously worded Hate Speech bill, which could put innocent people in jail for controversial statements, after it was found that key submissions had not been considered. It is rare for the ACDP, DA, EFF and ANC to reach agreement.

Parliamentary discussions on the Hate Speech Bill were postponed this morning after ACDP MP pointed out that the Department of Justice had not considered the key detailed submissions of Freedom of Religion SA and the Institute of Race Relations. Whistleblower Glynis Breytenbach of the DA supported the postponement, also asking for Mps to first get copies of all the submissions and not just the summary response table from the Department of Justice. EFF representative Yoliswa Yako supported this. Deputy Minister John Jeffrey confirmed that these submissions had not been received. He was not sure why but speculated that this may have been due to an email glitch. They planned to make a list of submissions to ensure all had been received.

Werner Horn of the DA wanted to know for repeat copy submissions, how many
people had supported each. Deputy Minister John Jeffrey said that the
‘DEAR SA’ web platform had made it difficult to count similar submissions as it gave different options.

The Department of Justice law adviser said three lawyers had worked through
5000 submissions on another bill in one day and so they would not take long to go through the missing submissions. Henrietta Maseko-Jele of the ANC said that this haste made her very worried, particularly on such a controversial bill.

The Chairman Mr Gratitude Magwanishe, said that to comply with constitutional requirements, the Department of Justice must be given more time to respond to the missing submissions.

While the Department of Justice has made a detailed response to submissions, it appears at first glance they have not responded to some concerns raised and misunderstood others. Some of the changes to the bill they are proposing can create new problems that interested parties need to respond to. ChristianView Network therefore welcome more time.

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During last week’s meeting between Parliament and the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the Hate Speech Bill a decision was taken to postpone discussions after it emerged that the department had not properly considered all submissions made during the public participation process.

The meeting’s purpose was for the department to provide Parliament with its summary and responses to the numerous public submissions made on the bill last year. However, it was revealed that substantive legal submissions had not been considered by the department. These included submissions from both the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) and Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA). 

Michael Swain executive director of FOR SA told Gateway News that discussion will be resumed once revised input is received from the DOJ after they have reviewed the omitted submissions. He said FOR SA is watching the situation daily.

Requests to strengthen religious exemption clause ignored
“A major problem for the faith communities of South Africa is that the clause in the bill which is supposed to protect bona fide religious expression from being criminalised is inadequate,” says Swain in a press release. “Only strengthening this clause will prevent the possibility of people being sent to jail for religious speech – especially in light of this bill’s wide definitions of harm and victim.”

The FOR SA press release continues: The DOJ previously told Parliament that the religious exemption clause, as it is now written, would only apply to sermons but would not protect someone who expressed their personal religious views, which could then be considered to be “hate speech”.  

The vast majority of over 103 000 individual submissions made via the DearSA online public participation platform also called for the religious exemption clause to be strengthened to provide robust protection for the free expression of bona fide faith convictions and beliefs.  However, none of these submissions have been considered to date by the department.

Public participation part of healthy democracy
Deputy Minister of Justice John Jeffery acknowledged that there was “a break in communication in terms of the committee section sending all of the submissions through to the department”.  However, he said that “the department is really only being asked to comment on the substantive submissions” and complained about what he called “this procedure of trying to lobby support and get signatories” which he did not “think really helps the parliamentary process”.

“FOR SA’s view is that extensive public participation is a healthy sign of a working democracy which properly considers the views expressed by all its citizens on specific issues,” said Swain, “We believe that the department’s omissions in this current matter clearly highlight the need for checks and balances to make sure that all submissions by all sectors of society are duly considered by our public servants.” 

Parliament recognised the importance of correcting the omissions and asked the department to make sure it includes the views expressed in these submissions and then provide Parliament with a revised summary so that it can properly consider all the inputs made by the public.  Their deliberations on the Bill continue.

NOTE:

Deputy Minister John Jeffrey’s comments summarised and quoted in this press release can be heard from minutes 29:00 – 31:55 on the video recording of the proceedings in Parliament on this matter:

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