The ‘Hate Speech’ Bill has been signed. It is now the law.
But a law is just paper until the police are told how to use it.
The Department of Justice has just released the Draft Regulations for the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act for public comment. These regulations instruct the SAPS and the NPA on exactly how to police you, track you, and prosecute you.
And there is a massive red flag in the fine print.
The regulations introduce a “Sentencing Lottery.” Prosecutors are now required to submit a Victim Impact Statement to the court in every case to “aggravate” sentencing.
This means your punishment will no longer be determined solely by what you did, but by how the victim feels.
- Scenario A: You offend someone who brushes it off. You get a fine.
- Scenario B: You offend someone who claims they are “emotionally shattered.” You go to prison.
Two citizens. Identical actions. Vastly different punishments based on the emotional resilience of the accuser. This is not equality before the law.
It gets worse:
- The Database: The police must now record the “political, religious, or social” grounds of every accused person—creating a state database of your views before you are even convicted.
- The “Forwarding” Trap: A specific police form (Form 3) has been created to track the “distribution” of electronic communication. Forwarding a message can now land you in the same sentencing lottery as the person who wrote it.
We cannot stop the Act, but we MUST fix these Regulations. We have until 28 January 2026 to challenge these subjective sentencing rules and surveillance measures.
Click here to have your say: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/hchs-regs/
