LETTER: What Frans Cronje really said
The Institute of Race Relations was not speaking specifically to Peter Bruce, and did not call him ‘mad’
Peter Bruce generously highlights our commitment and contribution to championing free speech but mistakes himself as the target of our argument about why vigorous and open debate is critical to South Africans making better choices about their future, in Fate of Jiba and Mrwebi an easy decision, April 25. Dwelling on a speech in March by Institute of Race Relations (IRR) CEO Frans Cronje, Bruce claims this address “ended up calling the people it disagreed with (me, basically) ‘utterly mad’.” He is wrong on two counts; Cronje did not mention Bruce at all; nor did he describe any individual, commentator or otherwise, as “mad”. Cronje sketched a picture of a [government], under mounting fiscal and political pressure, displaying “ever more dangerous behaviour” — including turning with ease to “hate-filled racial nationalist rhetoric”, siding “too comfortably with the worst pariah regimes the world has to offer”, offering “more state encroachment” to counter depressed economic conditions...
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