The Registrar received a complaint concerning the comments on Motsweding FM encouraging the 
community to kill a suspect if found. Other sweeping and unfair comments about Black people were also made on the programme. Whilst the presenter might have the opinion that the law should be taken into the hands of the vigilantes, this is an opinion, which he should keep to himself. That people have often taken the law into their own hands is, sadly, not just a matter of mediaeval record but a real and present danger in our and other societies. It is dangerous when a presenter expresses such an opinion seriously as was the case in the broadcast. This is the kind of statement, which should not even be permitted to reach a limited audience. It amounts to a sanctioning of violence and is in conflict with the Rule of Law, which is a founding value in our Constitution. It also amounts to incitement to imminent violence in terms of clause 16 of the Code. In so far as the demeaning and sweeping statements regarding a corruptive Black people are concerned, the expression of such an opinion is unfair in the extreme. The Tribunal considered whether such an opinion might not be permissible within a freedom of speech dispensation, such as ours. However, the opinion has a bearing on a matter of public importance and may not, according to clause 35 of the Broadcasting Code, be expressed without balancing it by a proper debate, which addresses the subject as a whole and is fairly related to the facts. The complaint is upheld in terms of clauses 14, 16 and 35 of the Broadcasting Code.
