K-WORD: Private conversation is no shield for racist language such as the k-word, SCA rules

The Supreme Court of Appeal has made an important ruling on racist language used in private, finding that even conversations between white people can amount to hate speech. As such, it upheld a R500,000 order against a businessman over his repeated use of the k-word.

Racist language does not become acceptable because it is spoken in private, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has ruled , finding that the circumstances of a conversation do not change the inherently racist and hateful character of the k-word.

In a judgment on Wednesday, 7 October 2026, the court dismissed an appeal by businessman Willem Hendrik Ackerman, upholding a finding that his repeated use of the k-word in conversations with another white man amounted to unlawful hate speech.

The judgment relates to three communications made by Ackerman between January 2018 and October 2021 and dealt with whether the statements constituted hate speech under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, as well as whether Ackerman could rely on his constitutional rights to privacy and freedom of expression.

Ackerman, a white South African, was a former client of Caleo Capital, an investment management business owned by Emmanuel Amaning, a black African, and Garth Wellman, a white South African.

The business provided investment management services to Ackerman from 2008 until 2022.

In January 2018, while Ackerman and Wellman were discussing Ackerman’s investment portfolio, Ackerman referred to black people running the country using the k-word.

On 3 October that year, while discussing Nicholas Liebmann, a white South African of Jewish descent and another Caleo partner, Ackerman referred to him as “that f***ing Jew who only wants to enrich himself in every deal”.

The message read: “Garth, after today I might be seen as a racist, but I will man alone kill every k****r that cross my path. So God help me.”

That statement, the court found, expresses “homicidal contempt”, and “it is not limited to the perpetrators of the robbery, and is framed in a manner that unequivocally indicates that the scope of the invective extends far beyond them.”

The robbery had taken place earlier that day in the presence of Ackerman’s wife, daughter and domestic worker.

Wellman said he had contacted Ackerman to offer his support. On the following day, the two exchanged further messages and telephone calls, with Wellman advising Ackerman to avoid posting messages about the robbery on social media.

Wellman and Liebmann subsequently discussed their concerns about Ackerman’s racist views and the possible impact of his relationship with Caleo on the company’s culture.

It did not end there. In October 2021, Wellman called Ackerman to discuss the potential impact of a National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa strike on Ackerman’s business.