Kunene to appeal guilty judgement for calling Malema a cockroach

Kenny Kunene says he will appeal the judgement that found him guilty of hate speech for calling Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema an irritating cockroach and a frog. 

The court ordered Kunene to issue an unconditional public apology to Malema, including retracting his statement.

KENNY KUNENE VS JULIUS MALEMA

Judge Motsamai Makume said the statement uttered by Kunene when he referred to Malema as a cockroach, little frog, and criminal declared to constitute hate speech as defined by the Equality Act.

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In response to the ruling, Kunene said he respects the South African courts but has substantial grounds to feel the judgement handed down by Judge Makume was wrong in law and will be overturned on appeal.

Kunene said his lawyers firmly believe that another court will come to a different decision, and therefore, the appeal will be launched as a matter of urgency. 

“Now is not the time to nitpick the judgement, but I’m sure that few people could ever have imagined that what I said about Julius Malema was so criminally horrendous as to be termed “hate speech.”

“It was truly rich of Julius Malema to take me to the Equality Court when he proudly sings ‘Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer,’ which isn’t hate speech. For me, as a layman, that is incitement to violence against a minority ethnic group,” Kunene said.

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The Sushi King accused Malema of spewing violence out of his mouth over and over.

“It was shameless of Julius Malema to take me to court after calling Pravin Gordhan a ‘dog’ that must be kicked so the master can come out. Julius Malema is a man with thin skin. He’s emotionally fragile, like a child. He wants to insult and doesn’t want to be insulted. He wants to demean others but doesn’t want to be demeaned,” Kunene added. 

The EFF believed that the words were not only hateful but were also not considerate of the historical impact of derogatory terms used to refer to human beings in inciting violence and genocide. 

The party said it hopes that the judgement will serve the rehabilitating purpose that the prison system failed to achieve with Kunene as an individual. 

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