{"id":868059,"date":"2026-07-30T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=868059"},"modified":"2026-07-30T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:57:09","slug":"south-africans-face-r50000-fine-or-jail-time-for-these-whatsapp-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/868059\/south-africans-face-r50000-fine-or-jail-time-for-these-whatsapp-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africans face R50,000 fine or jail time for these WhatsApp messages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A ruling by the Free State High Court has made it clear that South Africans could face serious penalties for sharing hate speech on WhatsApp, even if they did not create the content themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling has drawn attention to the implications of hate speech under the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once this Act is enacted, hate speech deemed to incite violence will become a criminal offence, potentially resulting in imprisonment for offenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is important to note that hate speech, harassment, and unfair discrimination are already prohibited under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was highlighted in a recent case involving Sibongile Tsoleli, a municipal councillor and former Member of Parliament (MP), who sent messages to an ANC “Women Coordinators” WhatsApp group in March 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsoleli had forwarded messages that targeted fellow ANC member and Mangaung councillor Stephanie Lockman-Naidoo, her husband, and the Indian community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The messages included baseless allegations regarding their involvement in corruption, adultery, and sexual innuendos, along with discriminatory remarks about Indians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Equality Court ruled that these comments constituted hate speech, harassment, and unfair discrimination.\u00a0 Tsoleli was ordered to pay R50,000 in compensation to Lockman-Naidoo within 30 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was also required to issue an unconditional apology to Lockman-Naidoo and the broader Mangaung Indian community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsoleli was mandated to attend a South African Race Sensitisation Programme approved by the South African Human Rights Commission within three months of the court’s order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsoleli has appealed the ruling, claiming that the court erred in determining that her messages constituted the publication of prohibited hate speech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She disputed the court’s findings on several grounds, including her assertion that she did not authorise the messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court has reaffirmed that the messages indeed qualify as harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No excuse <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tsoleli argued that the allegations were shared in a public group and made in the context of a political battle of reactions, which she argued did not amount to incitement to violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stated that her reference to Indians was made in the context of the “battle for economic resources,” rather than from any hatred towards Indians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She argued that the respondent could not have been offended by these comments, as she herself was not Indian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, she argued that sharing the messages was an exercise of her right to freedom of expression, which is protected by the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The High Court was not persuaded by her arguments and concurred with the ruling of the Equality Court, which it found was based on solid evidence and circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court ruled that a reasonable person reading the messages would conclude that the language used was discriminatory and harmful to the respondent, her husband, and their reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reaffirmed that the messages incited hatred against the Indian community, and the fact that the respondent was not of Indian descent by birth was deemed irrelevant to the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHer evidence that, pursuant to her marriage into the Indian family, she adopted the Indian culture, is indisputable,\u201d the court said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe humiliation, shame and reputational damage to her and her conservative Indian family caused her to abandon her promising career in politics and relocate her family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge criticised Tsoleli for her decision to refuse to apologise and instead defend herself on a basis that was “scant and contradictory.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court found that Tsoleli could have potentially avoided the damages claim and other repercussions altogether if she had chosen to retract her statements and apologise during the initial hearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appeal was dismissed with costs, and the court upheld the award of R50,000 in compensatory damages granted by the Equality Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent ruling by the Free State High Court has highlighted the serious consequences of sharing hate speech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":862475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2082738222208012694","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25981,5960,25980],"class_list":["post-868059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-free-state-high-court","tag-hate-speech","tag-sibongile-tsoleli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868059","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\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868059"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868070,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868059\/revisions\/868070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}