Kunene crushed in court for ‘cockroach’ jibe at Malema

Malema

Cape Town – The Johannesburg High Court has ruled that Patriotic Alliance deputy president Kenny Kunene’s use of the term “cockroach” to describe EFF leader Julius Malema constitutes hate speech.

The ruling upheld an earlier Equality Court decision, referencing the term’s genocidal connotations from the Rwandan genocide, where it was used to dehumanise Tutsis.

Malema filed the case in January 2022, arguing that Kunene’s refusal to apologise and his repeated use of dehumanising language reflected a belief that Malema deserved sub-human treatment.

Kunene called Malema “a little frog” and “an irritating cockroach” during an interview with eNCA in November 2022.

Malema, who didn’t take kindly to the comments, filed a lawsuit against the politician, demanding that he pays R1 million for the insults after Kunene failed to apologise, reported TimesLIVE.

The report said that Kunene refused to withdraw his statement, claiming that Malema had called other politicians worse things.

“What I said is not hate speech within the confines of the law. I don’t see how the court will arrive at the conclusion that saying someone is an irritating cockroach is hate speech. He is an irritating cockroach,” the report quoted Kunene as saying outside the court at the time.

He alleged that Malema was a “small boy” that was “emotionally fragile with low self-esteem”, the report said.

“Perhaps Malema is too scared of me, he fears me. Even in court, he panics when he hears my name,” said Kunene.

The court on Tuesday, found that this violated Section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.

Kunene has been ordered to stop using the term, and to issue both written and oral public apologies to Malema within a month, with costs of the appeal awarded against him.

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