SOUTH AFRICA LAWS

South Africa discrimination law  
The (London) Times - October 25 1999
New courts to enforce ANC equality laws

ABUSIVE and hurtful language, including the use of the words kaffir, boer and coolie, will be banned by law under sweeping new anti-discrimination legislation to be submitted to the South African Parliament this week. Unfair discrimination is defined as any act or omission, either intended or unintended, which has the effect of causing an unjust disadvantage to a person or group of people.  The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Bill has been approved by Cabinet and must be on the statute books by February.

The Bill lists 25 grounds on which unfair discrimination can take place, including race, gender, marital status, age, disability, social or economic status, religion, language, culture, belief, conscience, HIV-Aids, "or any other ground".

Special attention will be paid to "subtle forms of unfair discrimination", particularly "institutionalised, structural and subliminal discrimination", and the South African media will be issued with guidelines on how to comply with the new legislation.

New Equality Courts, or Tribunals, will enforce the law, effectively creating a form of civil litigation in which an applicant can allege unfair discrimination, and the respondent is presumed guilty until he or she can demonstrate in court that their action was "reasonable and justifiable".

The Bill has been heralded by its supporters as a long-overdue attempt to "move equality from the realm of theory to practice".  Government and business must "take positive steps to eliminate the legacy of apartheid and to achieve equality for previously disadvantaged people".

Critics insist, however, that it represents the most pernicious form of political correctness and will create a climate of moral terror in South Africa. It has been denounced by the South African Institute of Race Relations as "breathtaking in its ambit and staggering in its implications".