South African Union Leader Ordered To Apologize To Jews For ‘Hell’ Remark
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A senior trade union figure who threatened the Jewish community must offer an “unconditional apology,” a South African court ruled.
The Equity Court said Bongani Masuku, the international relations spokesman for the Congress of South African Trade Unions, or COSATU, must offer the apology through the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the Jewish umbrella, within 30 days of its order.
The Jewish Board had filed a complaint in April 2009 against Masuku with the South Africa Human Rights Commission following what it called “various threatening, inflammatory and derogatory statements” against the mainstream South African Jewish community and its leadership.
The complaint detailed how Masuku, speaking at the University of the Witwatersrand as well as in written communications, had threatened to target South African Jews who supported Israel, saying they should be “forced to leave South Africa.” At the university, at an event sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Young Communist League, he said Jews’ lives would be made “hell” and that vigilante action would be taken against families suspected of having members who served in the Israeli army.
In December 2009, the Human Rights Commission upheld the complaint, concluding that the remarks indeed constituted hate speech against the Jewish community and directing Masuku to apologize. The commission turned to the Equity Court to have its ruling enforced when Masuku, backed by COSATU, refused to apologize.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
