South African court bars radical leader Phumlani Mfeka from making anti-Indian remarks

JOHANNESBURG: A South African court has barred a leader of a radical forum from advocating hate speech and inciting violence against Indian-origin people in KwaZulu-Natal province, home to about a third of the country's 1.4 million-strong Indian community.

The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday interdicted Phumlani Mfeka, a member of the radical Mazibuye African Forum, from discriminating against or advocating violence against the Indian community or any community in KwaZulu-Natal.

Judge Kobus Booyens also restrained him from making statements orally or in writing or by any means of electronic media that may incite racial violence, iolnews.com reported.

Mfeka was also ordered to remove any such statements from electronic media, including Facebook and Twitter.

Ravi Pillay, provincial minister for Human Settlements and Public Works, and Willies Mchunu, the provincial minister for Transport and Community Safety had approached the court, seeking an urgent interdict against Mfeka to prevent a potentially devastating fallout from the anti-Indian text message Mfeka had sent to Pillay.

Mchunu said that he and Pillay were in a meeting when the latter received a text from Mfeka that promoted anti-Indian sentiment and advocated violence.

Pillay and Mchunu are members of the Social Cohesion Committee established by the Provincial Executive Council to ensure the willingness of co-operation in the province.

According to Mchunu's affidavit, Mfeka, now a member of Injenje yama-Nguni, and the Mazibuye African Forum have received much media attention because of derogatory remarks they made about people of Indian descent.

Mchunu informed the court that Mfeka had previously expressed anti-Indian sentiment in a newspaper column in 2013 and also later via social media.

The Forum has been very vocal in recent months in its claims that Indians discriminate against and exploit the black community in all spheres of life.