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NEWS
Bad Feelings in South Africa
by D. Saks,
Yated South African Correspondent
The mood of shock in the South African Jewish community
deepened last week following one of the worst acts of
antisemitic vandalism in recent years. The small Jewish
cemetery in Lichtenburg, a small, farming town in the north-
western part of the country, was found to have been
desecrated by one of the last remaining Jewish residents of
the town. All but three of the sixty graves were targeted,
with all the tombstones pushed over and many of them
shattered. It is uncertain at this stage whether there was a
link between this cemetery desecration, the third to have
taken place over the last 18 months in South Africa, and the
current Middle East crisis.
The Jewish community was also affected by the start of a
major court case between the South African Jewish Board of
Deputies (SAJBD) and the Islamic Unity Convention over the
broadcast of antisemitic material by Radio 786, a Muslim
community radio station, in May 1998. The SAJBD lodged a
complaint with the Independent Broadcasting Authority
following a program on Radio 786 featuring Jewish conspiracy
theories, Holocaust denial and various other anti- Jewish
canards. The propagation of hate speech against any
particular race or ethnic group is expressly prohibited in
South Africa.
The Islamic Unity Convention, which runs Radio 786,
responded to the SAJBD's complaint by lodging an application
in the Johannesburg High Court, claiming that the
regulations of the Independent Broadcasting Authority were
overly broad and impinged on their freedom of expression.
The matter is expected to end up in the Constitutional Court
and to be a landmark case with regard to the limits of
freedom of expression in South Africa.
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