The Equality Court judgment is wrong in law and will be overturned in appeal, said Patriotic Alliance (PA) deputy president Kenny Kunene in reaction to a ruling that he must apologise publicly for calling EFF leader Julius Malema “a cockroach”.
Kunene said it is shocking that Malema took him to the Equality Court.
“My lawyers will be advising the high court as soon as possible that we will indeed, respectfully, appeal,” Kunene said in a statement on Wednesday.
“They will be pointing out that the judgment failed to not only consider the various arguments raised by my counsel in the matter, which in their opinion resulted in the incorrect outcome, but the judgment itself is at odds with the established case law.
“My lawyers strongly believe that another court will come to a different decision, and therefore the appeal will be launched as a matter of urgency. Now is not the time to nitpick the judgment, but I’m sure that few people could ever have imagined that what I said about Julius Malema was so criminally horrendous as to be termed hate speech.”
Kunene was found guilty of hate speech by the Equality Court on Tuesday after he referred to the EFF commander-in-chief as a “cockroach” and “a little frog” in November 2021.
Handing down the verdict, judge Motsamai Makume said Kunene’s statements constitute hate speech as defined by the Equality Act.
Makume ordered Kunene, widely known as the Sushi King, to retract the statements and apologise within 30 days from the date of the court order. Kunene shot to infamy by eating raw sushi off the bodies of naked women.
The court also interdicted and restrained Kunene from publishing, propagating, advocating or communicating hate speech.
It directed the registrar of the high court to prepare and submit the dossier and judgment to the director of public prosecutions, within 30 days of the judgment, to determine whether the impugned statements warrant institution of criminal proceedings for crimen injuria against Kunene.
The court also ordered Kunene and the PA to pay Malema’s costs.
In his statement, Kunene compared Malema to a child, labelling him a man with a thin skin.
“Julius Malema spews violence out of his mouth, over and over. It was shameless of Julius Malema to take me to court after calling Pravin Gordhan a ‘dog’ that must be kicked so that the master can come out. He wants to demean others, but doesn’t want to be demeaned,” said Kunene.
He said he has the faith that the Supreme Court of Appeal will arrive at a different decision.
“Julius Malema insults young and old, even the wives of sitting presidents who are not even working in the public domain. I will not allow Julius Malema to continue to have a free licence to bully and say whatever he likes about whoever he likes, with no one having the courage to return the favour.”
Malema took Kunene to court after the PA deputy president’s interview with TV news broadcaster eNCA in November 2021, where Kunene made the utterances. He wanted him to fork out R1-million for the insults.
In the interview about coalition negotiations, Kunene threatened to deal with Malema whom he referred to as a little frog and cockroach. “Julius is just an irritating cockroach that now I must deal with publicly”, Kunene said during the interview.
A day later Malema, through his lawyers, asked Kunene to retract the statements and apologise. He also asked PA president Gayton McKenzie to distance his party from Kunene’s utterances, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
Kunene argued that he made the utterances in reaction to Malema’s statement in which he referred to the PA as a party of “amabhantinti” (jailbirds).
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