Karima Brown: EFF not committed to constitutionalism
Political analyst Karima Brown says Thursday’s court ruling in her favour is an example of how democracy trumps attempts to censor the media.
The high court in Johannesburg found in favour of Brown in a case against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
Brown took EFF to court after receiving death and rape threats after EFF leader Julius Malema published her cell phone number on Twitter.
The EFF has already indicated that it will comply with the court ruling.
EFF Statement On The Karima Brown Court Judgement pic.twitter.com/4g55oZUvzg
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) June 6, 2019
The court found that Malema and the EFF contravened the electoral code and must pay costs.
Brown believes the ruling is a victory over toxic masculinity.
"Over misogyny and patriarchy. Over fascism and it also shows the EFF up as a party that wants to pick and choose what part of the constitution it wants to adhere to. It likes calling other people constitutional delinquents, but it signed a code of conduct to behave a particular way during the elections and they went about breaking it.
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"They refused to take responsibility for it. It shows that EFF is not genuinely committed to constitutionalism."
Brown says this is also a win for woman journalists.
"I think the EFF had a particular misogynistic approach to attacking women and I'm very happy that I had the courage to fight and I am also very happy at the fact that political party is being held accountable not for what they say but for they do."
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This is the second legal setback for the EFF in a week.
Last week, the same court ruled that comments made by the EFF about former finance minister Trevor Manuel were "defamatory and false". It ordered the EFF to apologise within 24 hours and remove the statements from all their media platforms.
Manuel is also entitled to damages of R500 000.
The EFF has filed papers to appeal the ruling.