Eben Etzebeth

Springbok 2019 Rugby World Cup winner Eben Etzebeth. Photo: Adrian DENNIS / AFP

Aspirant deputy public protector on the back foot over Etzebeth remarks

Buang Jones is applying for the position of deputy public protector and found himself on the back foot when he was questioned about the Etzebeth case

Eben Etzebeth

Springbok 2019 Rugby World Cup winner Eben Etzebeth. Photo: Adrian DENNIS / AFP

The SA Human Rights Commission’s acting head for legal, Buang Jones, told members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday that his controversial remarks on Springbok rugby player Eben Etzebeth were partly taken out of context and partly justified.

Jones is applying for the position of deputy public protector and found himself on the back foot when he was questioned about the Etzebeth case by Democratic Alliance MP, Glynnis Breytenbach, in an interview for the position. 

Caught off-guard by Etzebeth case query

Breytenbach asked whether he considered his statements that Etzebeth “even gets away with murder” and that the SAHRC would “make an example” of the Springbok lock, to be in line with the rule of law and the principles of natural justice.

“In the Etzebeth case we decided, there was a commissioner’s decision, that we should institute proceedings in the Equality Court and I was simply carrying out the instruction of our commissioners,” he told the portfolio committee on justice, which was conducting the interviews with candidates.

He added that this involved being a party to a community meeting organised by the SAHRC in Langebaan, where four complainants alleged that they were physically assaulted and racially insulted by Etzebeth outside a pub called Die Watergat

“During the community meeting on the third of October, I was simply rephrasing, I was simply reminding them of the things that I had heard during the course of the day. So it is correct that I said we will make an example of Mr Etzebeth. This statement was made in reference to the criminal theory of deterrents. And it is also in the Equality Act because as a country we should take incidents of racism seriously given our history,” Jones said.

“So the statement was made in relation to other alleged incidents involving Mr Etzebeth and his family and friends in which it is alleged that the South African Police Service did nothing about it, in which we were informed that even the prosecution authority did nothing about it and we said it stops here. And getting away with murder, I used the word figuratively, because we were told by complainants by the community that they had previously reported incidents to the police and nothing had been done.”

He said he was subsequently told by somebody who lives in Bellville that he had also been a victim and had also waited in vain for the authorities to act against Etzebeth.

The SAHRC filed a hate speech case against Etzebeth on October 4 at the Hopefield Magistrate’s Court, on behalf of the so-called Langebaan Four.

Etzebeth denies the allegations and has filed a court application asking that the case against him be reviewed.

Jones’s statements in Langebaan caused a stir and are the subject of an internal investigation by the SAHRC. The chairman of the commission, advocate Bongani Majola, told the media that it was concerned about the remarks.

Etzebeth returned to South Africa last week as part of the Springbok team that won the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and has been given a hero’s welcome around the country, including at Parliament on Monday.

In his court papers, he accused the SAHRC of having acted under political pressure to pursue a case against him.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Devereaux Morkel