Lindsay Maasdorp Ordered to Remove Hate Speech and Undergo Sensitivity Training

Black First Land First spokesperson Lindsay Maasdorp has been ordered to delete any remaining offending statements from all his social media accounts, and to undergo sensitivity and diversity training before December 2022.

Maasdorp also has to pay the Sheriff’s fees incurred by the SAHRC (SA Human Rights Commission), and is interdicted from publishing any statements that advocate for the killing of or any form of violence against any group in South Africa.

The SAHRC announced its victory against Maasdorp on Friday afternoon. Proceedings had been instituted at the Western Cape High Court (sitting as the Equality Court) following numerous complaints about Maasdorp’s alleged hate speech on social media.

The allegations against Maasdorp, included:

• On 24 September 2016 on his face book page, during a conversation in relation to white people in South Africa, he posed the question “when will we kill them?”;
• on 25 September 2016, on his twitter page he wrote: “I have aspirations to kill white people, and this must be achieved”; and
• on 14 December 2018 he published a statement on Twitter, celebrating the murder of an elderly white couple to which he, in his tweet stated “ratio: ‘5:1’”. This referred to an earlier statement by a member of the BLF movement that five white people should be killed for every one black person killed.

The Equality Court heard the Commission’s application and on 17 February 2022, handed down judgment against Maasdorp.

The SAHRC said: “The Commission believes this is an important judgment that goes a long way toward the Commission’s goal of eradicating all forms of hate speech on racial or other grounds.”