Earlier this month the Foundation lashed out at racist comments made by Penny Sparrow on social media; but added that sommentary surrounding her comments as well as the “less controversial” social media posts made by economist Chris Hart and Gareth Cliff is seen as evidence of “rampant and pervasive white racism” in South Africa.

“However, an analysis of Facebook and Twitter messages shows that by far the most virulent and dangerous racism – expressed in the most extreme and violent language – has come from disaffected black South Africans,” Foundation said in a statement.

“The messages are replete with threats to kill all whites – including children; to rape white women or to expel all whites from South Africa.”

Section 16(1) of the Constitution states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression and section 16(2) adds that this right does not extend to propaganda for war; to Incitement to imminent violence; or to advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.

Section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prohibition of Unfair Discrimination Act (PEPUDA), which deals with hate speech, states that “no person may publish, propagate, advocate or communicate words based on one or more of the prohibited grounds, against any person, that could be construed to be hurtful; to be harmful or to incite harm; or to promote or propagate hatred.”

The FW de Klerk foundation added that all of the messages it submitted to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) are in contravention of the above-mentioned provisions.

The Foundation asked the SAHRC “to investigate and to report on the observance of human rights” with regards to the extent that the messages constitute hate speech in terms of the constitution.

Furthermore, the foundation requested that the commission act on its mandate to “take steps to secure appropriate redress where human rights have been violated” and to refer any incidences of incitement proven to be in contravention of the law to the National Director of Public Prosecutions.