Johannesbur - The NDPP has been petitioned to review a decision for the withdrawal of charges against a KwaZulu-Natal businessman who allegedly called his employee a “baboon” and a “k****r”.
The charges against 74-year-old Pietermaritzburg businessman Edmund Rusty Roodt were withdrawn in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court on March 11, on instructions of the chief prosecutor.
No reasons were furnished. In its petition, the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution wants the National Director of Public Prosecutions to review that decision as Roodt’s racial attack was not only harmful to Jabulani Tshabalala – an employee he allegedly called a “baboon” – but to the public as well.
Tshabalala, a stock receiver and a branch chairman of the EFF, laid charges against his former boss, saying he had been abusing him since 2007.
The 54-year-old said Roodt had previously called him a “k****r”, and then, more recently, started referring to him as a “baboon”.
But while he wasn’t given any reasons for the case’s withdrawal, it was believed that senior prosecutors withdrew charges as Roodt had himself laid assault charges against Tshabalala, saying the counter-charges were mutually destructive.
In an affidavit sent to the National Prosecuting Authority, Society for the Protection of Our Constitution secretary Muhammed Vawda said “the prosecutor erred in that he/she instituted prosecution but then declined to prosecute. This practical step is… legally illogical”.
He added: “The NPA must treat its customers, which includes victims, witnesses and complainants, in accordance with the Bill of Rights and ensure access to the prosecuting service.
“Calling human beings k****s and baboons in a manner that incites violence is prohibited in section 2 of the constitution. Section 39 of the Fundamental Rights demands that the NPA interprets the conduct of persons calling others k*****s as a serious violation of, and threat against, the Bill of Rights contained in the constitution,” said Vawda.
By failing to deal with the case, the NPA was perpetuating crude racial stereotypes.
“A white man, Roodt, calling a black man, Tshabalala, a k****r is exactly what our divisive past entailed daily during apartheid. Racial superiority defies and destroys equality in South Africa, more so given the nature of our dreadful oppressive history, when in today’s times a white man is at serious illegal liberty to call a black man a baboon or far worse, calling the black man a k****r.
“However, Roodt’s conduct of using the k-word was not prosecuted against or not properly prosecuted against,” said Vawda.
NPA spokesman Velekhaya Mgobhozi confirmed receipt of the application but would not indicate what action the NPA would take, saying only that the file was “pending”. – Additional reporting by Sherlissa Peters
The Star