{"id":852961,"date":"2026-03-05T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=852961"},"modified":"2026-03-05T12:42:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:42:05","slug":"criminal-charges-laid-against-members-of-parliament-for-crimen-injuria-and-racist-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/852961\/criminal-charges-laid-against-members-of-parliament-for-crimen-injuria-and-racist-behaviour\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminal charges laid against Members of Parliament for crimen injuria and racist behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sean Hoatson, the CEO of Normandien Farms, said the group has laid criminal charges against members of parliament (MPs) for crimen injuria and racist behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This followed an unannounced visit by the MPs, accompanied by armed police officers, to Normandien Farms last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of this committee were on an oversight of departmental operations in the Amajuba district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normandien Farms is the district’s largest employer and includes Thirsti, which produces bottled water and sports drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normandien Farms and Thirsti have 3,000 employees and a spotless compliance record with South Africa\u2019s labour laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 4 February 2026, the Department of Employment and Labour released a statement saying it was a joint inter-department team visit to the farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the visit included people from the Inspection and Enforcement Services and the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inspection assignment was being overseen by the committee, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the visit, there was muted resistance to cooperation. The farm owners were warned of their actions and later relented and allowed the inspection,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Hoatson has a different version of events. He said a group of approximately 50 unidentified individuals arrived at the property in ten SUVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MPs, who arrived unannounced, demanded entry to the private property and did not comply with safety or foot-and-mouth disease protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On arrival, they intimidated and overran security. When security refused them entrance, they were threatened with arrest by the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that no introduction, identification, or letter of appointment was shown or offered by the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoatson added that members of the Portfolio Committee on Labour hurled verbal abuse and racist remarks towards senior staff members of the employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criminal charges laid against MPs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hoatson described the group\u2019s visit<\/a> to his farm as a hostile, unauthorised inspection intended for social media likes rather than for actual legal compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the inspectors found no actual violations but issued a prohibition notice for media optics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoatson described the group as unmanageable, adding that they forced their way past security with the help of heavily armed police<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have registered cases for crimen injuria and racist behaviour exhibited by some members of the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have laid cases at the local police station against some of the members of the group for crimen injuria and racist behaviour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Hoatson said that despite registering these cases, they have not heard back from the police about further action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the criminal charges, the company has written directly to Parliament to bring focus to the overreach and intimidation that occurred during the visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest problems was that the group ignored strict biosecurity protocols for foot-and-mouth disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoatson said they had not laid specific charges under those health protocols at that stage, focusing instead on the individuals’ criminal behaviour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Hoatson, the CEO of Normandien Farms, said the group has laid criminal charges against members of parliament for trespassing, crimen injuria, and racist behaviour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":852964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[17130,24931,24934,24932,24933],"class_list":["post-852961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-department-of-employment-and-labour","tag-normandien-farms","tag-portfolio-committee-on-employment-and-labour","tag-sean-hoatson","tag-thirsti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852961"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852974,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852961\/revisions\/852974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}