The SA Human Rights Commission must give answers to the FF Plus as to why it failed to investigate a complaint of possible racism against Palesa Sotjifa who apparently on Twitter had amongst others, incited the EFF to murder white people. Comments of Sotjifa have been made on Twitter for the past two years already.
Adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus’ parliamentary spokesperson on human rights, says social media is abuzz about the issue, and it has already been reported in the mainstream media. Yet, the HRC has to date failed to investigate Sotjifa out of its own volition.
According to report in Netwerk24, she started with racist tweets two years ago by writing, amongst others: “They were supposed to stop them there and kill all of them. We would be having a whites free country.”
According to a report, she tweeted last year: ‘the EFF should kill 500 white people for us’.
According to Adv. Alberts, the FF Plus has now submitted an official complaint against Sotjifa with the HRC but has also demanded answers from the HRC why the commission hadn’t out of its own and without a complaint had taken any action and investigated the comments as it had done in many other cases.
The question of the party reads: “Please inform our office why the possible racist comments of Palesa Sotjifa had not been investigated by the HRC on its own initiative as it had done in many other cases or with many other individuals, and with specific reference to white people on a similar basis.”
Recent requests for information of Adv. Alberts addressed to the HRC in terms of the PAI Act pertaining to the commission’s investigations since its establishment and with specific reference to race in the investigations, revealed huge shortcomings in the HRC.
In a letter dated 20 June of this year, the HRC acknowledged that its data on human rights complaints do not indicate which race groups were involved in the investigations.
The response reads, amongst others: “The commission does see the value of recording and analysing all complaints so that a proper racial profile of complainants can be created. The executive officer has been asked to make provision for this in future”.
Adv. Alberts says the FF Plus has on various occasions in the past criticised the HRC for, amongst others, its apparent unwillingness to investigate the EFF and president Jacob Zuma.
“The situation at the HRC is extremely worrying, and the commission will not be able to blame the public if it increasingly suspects the competence and impartiality of the commission as matters stand now,” Adv. Alberts says.
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