The BackaBuddy crowdfunding initiative for Renaldo Gouws has been halted. Almost R50,000 will be returned to those who contributed to the campaign.
Gouws, who is facing a lawsuit by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), was the beneficiary of this fundraising effort. The SAHRC has vowed to take him to the Equality Court for alleged hate speech and racial utterances.
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The controversy surrounding Renaldo Gouws stems from an old clip of himself saying the k-word, which resurfaced on social media.
Consequently, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament has been suspended from the political party and is also facing an internal disciplinary hearing. The resurfaced clip has ignited a significant backlash and raised questions about the appropriate use of language by public figures.
This week, a group of Renaldo Gouws supporters launched a BackaBuddy fundraising campaign. According to the creator, Matthew Dickson, the money raised was intended to cover Gouws’s legal bills in his representation against the SAHRC.
Dickson stated, “Please support Renaldo Gouws against the very same SAHRC that doesn’t see Julius Malema and Andile Mngxitama’s hate speech as such but yet see Renaldo’s hyperbole as hate speech.”
However, the fundraising campaign, which raised nearly R50,000 of its R100,000 goal, was halted by BackaBuddy on Wednesday, June 26.
The platform has decided to disable the campaign, and the funds will be returned to the contributors. This move has added another layer to the ongoing controversy surrounding Gouws and has sparked further debate about the boundaries of free speech and accountability.
