High Court rules Kunene's 'cockroach' comments about Malema don't meet threshold for criminal sanction

JOHANNESBURG -The Gauteng High Court said while Kenny Kunene's “cockroach” comments directed to Julius Malema amount to hate speech, they don’t meet the threshold for criminal sanction. 

On 17 November 2021, Kunene called the Economic Freedom Fighters leader a “cockroach” four times during a televised interview. 

On Tuesday, a high court judge dismissed Kunene's appeal of an Equality Court judgment that ruled that his words amounted to hate speech. 

READ: Malema says won’t hesitate to sue McKenzie for bad-mouthing him

In the initial judgment, the Equality Court ruled that Kunene calling Malema a “cockroach”, “little frog” and “criminal” amounted to hate speech. 

However, the Gauteng High Court said only the word “cockroach” fits the description of hate speech, while the other two phrases can be ascribed to heated political rhetoric. 

READ: PA's Kunene once again ordered to apologise to EFF's Malema for calling him a ‘cockroach’

During a recent interview on Politricking with Tshidi Madia, Malema stated that the political arena cannot be used for making harmful comments. 

"If you become personal, I will sue you. I don't play games. I will sue you the following day and effectively, I sued Kenny Kunene when he called me a cockroach and I won.” 

Kunene has been ordered to issue an oral and written apology to Malema.