Johannesburg – Suspended Patriotic Alliance deputy leader and former City of Johannesburg mayoral committee member for transport, Kenny Kunene, has lost his bid to appeal a finding by the Equality Court that he was guilty of hate speech.
The matter goes back to 31 January 2023, when the Equality Court ruled that Kunene’s use of the words “cockroach”, “little frog”, and “criminal” to refer to Julius Malema, leader of Economic Freedom Fighters, amounted to hate speech.
Kunene was ordered to apologise for using these words to describe Malema.
The Equality Court also interdicted Kunene from doing so in future, and referred his utterances to the Director of Public Prosecutions for further investigation.
However, Kunene and the Patriotic Alliance appealed the already long-running matter.
Kunene made the offensive remarks about Malema on 7 November 2021 during a television discussion about the outcome of local government elections that had taken place earlier that month.
Today, Tuesday 5 August 2025, the High Court of SA, Gauteng Division, Johannesburg, dismissed the appeal with costs, including the costs of two counsel.
“Save to the extent that the Equality Court’s order is varied below, the appeal is dismissed with costs, including the costs of two counsel, to be paid by the first and second appellants jointly and severally, the one paying the other to be absolved,” the court ruled.
“Counsel’s costs may be taxed on the ‘C’ scale.”
Judge SDJ Wilson said the Equality Court’s order was varied and replaced with the following order:
- 1. It is declared that the first respondent’s use of the word “cockroach” to describe the complainant in the ENCA television interview of 17 November 2021 amounted to hate speech in contravention of section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000.
- 2. The first respondent (Kenny Kunene) is interdicted and restrained from describing the complainant as a “cockroach” in future.
- 3. The first respondent (Kenny Kunene) is ordered to issue an unconditional written and oral public apology for referring to the complainant as a “cockroach”. The apology must unequivocally retract the use of the word “cockroach” to describe the complainant.
- 4. The first respondent’s (Kenny Kunene) written and oral apology must be published within one month of the date of this order.
- 5. The first (Kenny Kunene) and second (Patriotic Alliance) respondents are directed, jointly and severally, the one paying the other to be absolved, to pay the costs of the complaint, including the costs of two counsel.
