Criminalising racism in tumultuous times

The purpose of this policy brief is to evaluate whether existing laws governing discrimination, hate speech, crimen injuria and defamation are adequate to deal with the recent rise in racist hate speech in South Africa. The introduction of a new bill criminalising hate crimes and hate speech is discussed in the context of existing legislation in South Africa and elsewhere which is designed to deal with these harmful acts. The bill provides for the criminalisation of conduct that amounts to incitement, instigation and conspiracy to commit hate crimes.