(Twitter screenshot)
(Twitter screenshot)
It was a mere 48 hours ago that Adam Catzavelos didn’t have a care in the world, relaxing and unwinding on a pristine Greek beach.
But if you’re going to drop a K-bomb and send a video of it to someone, then you deserve to see your world come crashing down. Everything that could go wrong for the businessman, has gone wrong.
He’s been fired, seen several partners pull away from his family business, received a banning order from his kids’ school, and has had charges filed against him by the EFF.
The discourse now turns to the question of what happens next. We’ve seen everything from abject anger to comical satirisation of South Africa’s newest public enemy. But will he face the same fate as someone like Vicki Momberg? That’s what’s being discussed at the moment.
Adam Catzavelos: Can he be convicted for using the K-word?
A lot of things need to be taken into consideration here. Intent and context are two massive factors. The video is thought to have been sent privately to another person in his inner circle.
As abhorrent as his words were, they may not have been directed at anyone in particular. This makes it a little more difficult to pin a crime like “crimen injuria” on him. Not impossible, however…
EFF members who took their charges to the police station on Wednesday could quite easily argue that anyone using that word – in any context – is harming their reputation.
Emma Sadlier is a social media law expert. She told EWN that any legal action taken against Catzavelos will have to balance his right to privacy against the public’s right of interest. She actually argues that his “illegal” language – and prominent status as a community businessman – makes the public’s right more important.
Therefore, she does not see a defence based on him “sending the message in confidence” to prove successful.
What do legal experts say about Adam Catzavelos?
They aren’t being too committal at the moment. In reality, crimes involving the K-word are effectively new territory for the whole country. Momberg was the first person ever to go to jail for using the slur, so there aren’t too many direct precedents a legal team could draw from.
Perhaps the closest direct case to this one is that of Penny Sparrow‘s. She uploaded a Facebook post in 2016, which lamented the presence of black people on a Durban beach (seriously, what is it about beaches that bring out the worst in racists?) – She referred to the group as “monkeys”.
Like Adam Catzavelos, she used a blanket racial term to refer to a group of people and published a permanent record of her thoughts to a social media platform.
The Equality Court fined her R150 000 for the outburst, and René Koraan, a senior lecturer at the law faculty of North West University, told News24 that she expects to see something similar happen to the holidaymaker. She believes a fine – and no jail time – awaits Adam on his return.
What law applies to Catzavelos?
Speaking of which, him being in a foreign country when he uttered these words hasn’t helped clear the waters. There has been speculation about whether he’s subject to Greek or South African law, but Gift Kgomosotho of SA’s Human Rights Commission has got some bad news for Mr Catsavelos.
Kgomosotho said that he is still subject to the rules and regulations of Mzansi, and he believes that there are genuine grounds for a case of hate speech to be opened. He also sighted the Penny Sparrow case, saying that he’s likely to face justice through the Equality Court.
