$14,000 Fine (Plus Order to Apologize) in South Africa for Anti-Homosexuality Op-Ed and Cartoon

The story (which, among other things, argued that the South African Constitution should be changed to reject same-sex marriage rights) and cartoon (which suggested that recognition of same-sex marriage would logically justify recognition of human-animal marriage) are here. The account of the court decision is in the Mail & Guardian; here’s an excerpt:

Former Sunday Sun columnist Jon Qwelane was found guilty of hate speech by the Johannesburg Equality Court on Tuesday.

The court found that a cartoon in his column amounted to hate speech, and that both his article and the cartoon propagated hatred and harm….

Qwelane was ordered to make an unconditional apology to the gay and lesbian community, and pay R100 000 to the SA Human Rights Commission….

Qwelane did not make much of an appearance in the course of the trial. He failed to sign court papers presented to him by a clerk and did not file responding papers.

The court ruled that, as it had only one version of the story, the SAHRC’s argument would be accepted.

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