Johannesburg - Trade union Solidarity says it will open a criminal case against Black First Land First (BLF) for controversial comments made by its spokesperson regarding the deaths of three learners at Hoërskool Driehoek.
The union also plans to approach the Equality Court for what is believed to be BLF's incitement of hate speech. The cases will be laid on Friday on behalf of the families whose children were injured or killed when a concrete platform collapsed at Hoërskool Driehoek.
The organisation was criticised when its spokesperson Lindsay Maasdorp posted a comment on Facebook regarding the deaths of the learners
Maasdorp was said to have tweeted: “Why should we frown on the ancestors’ petitions to punish the land thieves including their offspring.”
He is also said to have told followers not to mourn the death of white learners.
The criminal case will focus on the violation of human dignity and the incitement of racial hate, the union said.
“We cannot allow a fringe figure’s racial hatred to be normalised. The statements of the BLF have reached an extremely low point where hate speech is concerned and if we left it at that, we regard it is acceptable,” Solidarity's Dirk Hermann said.
Solidarity said it also plans to approach the IEC in an effort to ban the BLF from participating in this year's general elections.