HIERARCHICAL FREEDOMS
Hate speech law may well curb all manner of freedoms
The extent to which you tick victimhood boxes is the extent to which you will be allowed to spew hate speech, writes Leon Louw
Beware — if the hateful hate speech bill is enacted, telling someone that they induce the episodic levator ani syndrome variant of proctalgia funaxal sacrococcygeal distress in your pubococcygeus could have you jailed for a whole three years. In plain English, that amounts to calling someone a pain in the a**e. The fact that you stated an objective fact will be no defence. Under the hateful law, you will have to say “go to hell” so politely that hellish folk look forward to the journey. You might wonder how legislators reconcile controlling your mouth with their proclivity for hate speech. Our beloved Constitution places them above laws they impose on us. The “parliamentary privilege” clause (58) says they “have freedom of speech in the Assembly and in its committees … and are not liable to civil or criminal proceedings, arrest, imprisonment or damages for anything that they have said [or revealed].” That is why Patricia de Lille (as MP) could, without adducing evidence, accuse mini...
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