Cape Town – The South African Communist Party (SACP) says it has decided to press charges against Nicole Barlow, who made racially divisive comments against Minister Gwede Mantashe, a report said on Monday.
Barlow received a lot of backlash online after making a comment over the weekend, suggesting that Mantashe should be assassinated like Chris Hani, a late leader of the SACP.
The comment was made in response to a news story about the minister snubbing a billion-dollar green hydrogen deal.
“We missed an opportunity to do a Chris Hani on him,” Barlow wrote.
Many social media users are calling for action by the South African Human Rights Commission and the police, condemning Barlow’s statement as unacceptable.
Barlow later acknowledged her hypocrisy in criticising EFF leader Julius Malema for inciting violence while engaging in similar behaviour herself. She attributed her lapse in judgment to her frustration with the corruption of the ANC and expressed regret for her comment.
“I agree it is grossly hypocritical to criticise [EFF leader] Julius Malema for publicly inciting violence and promoting the killing of white farmers (Boers) only for me to turn around and do it as well.
This move by racists is so predictable … first the violence with intent to harm and when called out, the gear switch to the justification and feigned concern for black people.
Oh and now the tweet is deleted. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/bOiq3B7YMw
— Bianca van Wyk (@BiancavanWyk16) June 25, 2023
Since when is calling for the assassination of a senior politician “a jaded view”?
This is a poor attempt at apology and you lack an understanding of how racist your tweet was!
— Africa Research Desk (@MightiJamie) June 25, 2023
“One should never fall into the trap of engaging with one’s enemy through cheap point scoring and insults.
“I have spent 20 years fighting the ANC and the devastating impact their corruption has had on our environment, and for a split second I allowed my jaded perspective of them to cloud my judgement, and that was wrong,” she said.
According to Times Live, SACP’s general secretary, Solly Mapaila, expressed concern over Barlow’s remarks and said: “Given what happened to Chris Hani, we cannot take the utterances lightly.
“Nicole Barlow implicated herself in what happened to Chris Hani, the SACP general secretary who was assassinated in cold blood on April 10 1993. This also suggests they, the ‘We…’ in her tweet, ‘… missed an opportunity to do’ the same on Mantashe.”.
The report said that the South African Human Rights Commission (Sahrc) received complaints about the tweet and is assessing the case to determine its next steps.
The commission emphasised that hate speech on social media is a growing concern and that there can be legal consequences for such behaviour, the report said.
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Picture: Twitter/@SACP1921
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
