Dismissal for racist remarks and racism

Racism has always been a hard and tough battle fought by all South Africans. Since the independence of the Republic of South Africa has racism in the workplace become a very popular tendency. Ever since has there been a number of legislation which has been incorporated to specifically address this behaviour, but remains the question whether this legislation has achieved what its drafters aimed to have achieved. There will also be a comparison to the implemented legislations of Australia and England aimed at addressing and prohibiting racism in the workplace. Throughout this study, attention will be brought to specific words which have been used in the past by particular employees towards their fellow employees and the consequences thereof. Recently, the Supreme Court of Appeal and our Constitutional Court had to relook at the definition of “hate speech” in terms of certain legislation within South African and came to the conclusion that this definition must be amended to include, and also exclude, particular words and phrases in order for the existing definition thereof to be more precise and clear. The main aim of this study is to determine whether the dismissal of an employee, based on racism in the workplace, or for the utter of racism remarks in the workplace, can warrant the dismissal of that specific employee, and should dismissal not be the appropriate sanction, to determine what sanction would be appropriate in such circumstances. The writer hereof, has aspired to achieve his goal throughout this study that racism in the workplace should not be tolerated, and that employees who make themselves guilty thereof, should be punished in a serious manner