Afrikaans singer Sunette Bridges must explain whether she was aware of allegedly offensive and hateful remarks on her Facebook page, the Equality Court sitting in the Western Cape High Court heard.
Anton Katz, for the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), said the court should direct whether it had the jurisdiction to hear the matter and whether Bridges could be held liable for third party comments on what seemed to be her Facebook page.
Katz argued that Bridges did have a case to answer to and asked for a hearing date in April.
The SAHRC has accused Bridges of hosting apparently racial commentary on her Facebook page and believes it constitutes hate speech in terms of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act of 2000.
It felt the commentary created an environment in which racist and hateful attitudes were allowed to flourish.
The court was not hearing arguments in the matter but first deciding in which direction the matter should proceed.
Paul Kruger, for Bridges, argued that a person could not be held liable for third party comments on the internet.
“What she says in her papers is that she denies any liability and she will state her case in court,” he told Judge Siraj Desai.
Kruger said one could not merely assume that his client was the creator and moderator of a number of pages under the name of Sunette Bridges.
His client would also argue that she never saw certain remarks on her pages and that she could not moderate everything around the clock.
Kruger agreed that certain remarks on the pages were racist and offensive. He said his client regularly deleted content off her pages but that it was impossible to be aware of everything.
He argued that the Western Cape court did not have sole jurisdiction and that his client lived in Pretoria.
Bridges is the daughter of the late Afrikaans singer Bles Bridges.
According to Katz, she had two Facebook pages, one under her personal name and one entitled “Sunette Bridges News Page”, which focused on issues of concern to the conservative white Afrikaans community.
The SAHRC wanted Bridges to post an unconditional apology on her Facebook pages and remove the hate speech and harassment it had identified.
Sapa