Party leader's repeated 'Eastern Cape' references not about geography but a coded 'racial trope'

Cape Coloured Congress president Fadiel Adams' often threatening references to a City of Cape Town municipal manager as being "from the Eastern Cape" have been found to constitute unfair discrimination, hate speech and harassment by the Equality Court.

Western Cape High Court Judge Nobahle Mangcu-Lockwood ruled on Friday that Adams' frequent use of the term "Eastern Cape" in relation to municipal manager Lungelo Mbandazayo "was not a neutral reference to geography divorced from race".

"Any reasonable, objective and informed person, on hearing these words would perceive them to be racist and derogatory. It is coded language and a racial trope which is intended to convey Mr Mbandazayo as inferior. It matters not that [Adams] did not specifically mention the words 'race', 'black' or 'black man'," she said.