No ‘boers’ allowed – new South African case deals with racist words at work
People who publicly use derogatory words and other expressions of racism may face legal sanctions including private claims for defamation as well as criminal charges for crimen injuria.
Despite these harsh consequences, there have been numerous incidents of people publicly using overtly racist and often taboo words to describe others, says
“The constitution prohibits racism through safeguarding every person’s rights to dignity and equality. It also expressly limits the right to freedom of expression to exclude the advocacy of hatred which is based on race,” he said.
“Recent cases have emphasised that our society and law is taking a zero-tolerance policy towards racism and the use of derogatory language.”
The worst thing you can say
In South African Revenue Service v Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and others [2017] JOL 37679 (CC) the court held that “’k*****’ is the worst insult that can ever be visited upon an African person in South Africa, particularly by a white person.
The court said that it ‘runs against the very essence of our constitutional ethos or quintessence.”
“In recognition of this, the court limited the amount of compensation owed to the offending employee whose dismissal was procedurally unfair,” said Pienaar.
He added that this position was extended by the court in Rustenburg Platinum Mine v SAEWA obo Bester and others 2018 (8) BCLR 951 (CC) where an employee was dismissed for calling an African colleague a ‘swartman’.
“The court held that even seemingly neutral language may be offensive and constitute racism depending on the context and the intention of the speaker. The dismissal was considered fair in the circumstances.”
“It is also becoming clear that nobody is immune to the legal and employment-related consequences of racism,” said Pienaar.
This was highlighted in the case of Makhanya v St Gobain [2019] 7 BALR 720 (NBCCI), where the CCMA held that ‘boer’ carries similar derogatory connotations to the ‘k-word’ and dismissed an application for unfair dismissal that arose from an African employee’s use of the word.
“It is therefore clear that all South Africans must beware that the language that they use is not discriminatory or racially-offensive to anyone,” said Pienaar.
“Employers would be prudent to alert their employees to the severe consequences that may follow the use of derogatory language both in and out of the workplace.”
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