Mpho

AfriForum’s move under @kalliekriel to take legal action against @Mngxitama2 is the right one. An MP who publicly frames the deliberate cutting off of a farmer’s ears during a brutal attack as a symbolic political message about “land thieves” and “no land no peace” is not engaging in legitimate debate. He is using the suffering of a living victim (Donovan Marx, still recovering in ICU after being shot, stabbed, and mutilated on 28 October) to advance a narrative that treats extreme violence as understandable or even justified. That crosses a clear line. Mngxitama’s record already includes previous statements that courts have scrutinised for hate speech. When a sitting member of parliament responds to a farm attack involving torture by reducing the victim to a political symbol and invoking historical grievances in that context, it undermines the basic expectation that elected representatives do not legitimise or trivialise criminal violence. Accountability through the courts is not “silencing” him; it is applying the same legal standards that bind everyone else. If the evidence shows his remarks meet the threshold for hate speech, incitement, or related offences, he should face the consequences of the law. @ParliamentofRSA, you also have a duty to examine whether an MP who makes such statements remains fit to hold office. Farmers and rural communities already live with elevated risk of violent crime; they do not need elected officials treating the mutilation of one of their own as a talking point.