Court rules BLF ‘land or death' slogan hate speech

The application was brought by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which asked the court to declare the slogan illegal.

The commission’s Gauteng provincial manager, Buang Jones, says the BLF has been ordered to remove their political slogan from their regalia, social media platforms, and website within a month.

He adds that the clerk of the court has sent a copy of the judgment to the National Prosecuting Authority to decide on possible criminal charges against the BLF

"The South African Human Rights Commission welcomes the judgment delivered by the equality court today (Monday).

"It's an explicit pronouncement that we can no longer tolerate racial separation in South Africa, it's an explicit pronouncement that we need to join hands and promote social cohesion in South Africa.

"The commission implores all South Africans to welcome this judgement," says Jones.

However, the BLF says it will appeal the ruling.

The party's Zanele Lwana is adamant the party will not apologise, saying the court case was merely part of a campaign to remove the BLF from the ballot paper.

"We are going to appeal the outcome the judgment by the Equality Court. We believe as BLF that we should not be compelled to apologise for fighting for our land.

"And we believe that the colonisers when they settled into our country, they didn't only steal people they stole the land and our people bleed for this land.

"And we know that this was again a tactic to try and use the SAHRC to deregister our movement from the elections they didn't succeed, we are not going to apologise for anything.”