South Africa ushers in controversial equality law

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- South Africa ushered in far-reaching legislation Friday to combat racism and reverse centuries of apartheid and colonial-era injustices.

The controversial Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act was hailed by the government as one of the most important bills since Nelson Mandela led the country to democracy in 1994.

Government opponents and legal critics have criticized the act, which creates equality courts and in some cases puts the onus on someone accused of discrimination to prove innocence.

"(This is) a comprehensive assault by the government on the shaken and broken, but not yet finally demolished, edifice of apartheid," Education Minister Kader Asmal told a national racism conference.

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The four-day conference has focused attention on post- apartheid race relations, with blacks accusing whites of resisting change, and some whites saying their efforts have not been properly recognized.

"We have the political will and democratic mandate to launch an African reconstruction as far-reaching as, but also more enduring than, the American Reconstruction after the nineteenth century Civil War, which relapsed into American apartheid.

"The act ensures that no area of governance escapes the priorities of reconstruction and the move away from racial discrimination," Asmal said in a keynote speech.

Mandela's successor, President Thabo Mbeki, signed the bill Wednesday and it took effect Friday, his spokesman said. Parliament passed the bill in January.

Defendants have to prove innocence under act

The act seeks to eradicate the "systemic discrimination and inequalities ... brought about by colonialism, the apartheid system and patriarchy."

But Section 13 of the act -- that it is not up to an accuser to prove guilt but to a defendant to prove innocence -- has proved controversial.

Under its terms, once a complainant has made out a prima facie case of discrimination to an equality court, "the respondent must prove, on the facts before the court, that the discrimination did not take place as alleged" or that the conduct did not take place as alleged.

"The point is that it alleviates the risk of placing an unrealistic burden of proof on the victim," Asmal said, adding that the state was willing to provide legal aid to those taking their grievances to equality courts.

"The private sector has no privacy from the imperatives of dealing with our legacy from which apartheid-era business benefited," Asmal said.

The act also prohibits hate speech, racial harassment and discrimination on grounds of race, gender or disability.

The act's power ranges from the workplace, education, health services, housing, goods and services to sports and insurance services.

"We are putting on our political institutions and culture the stamp of the continuing needs of the black oppressed," said Asmal, a leading intellectual in the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Asmal said the government was also committed to reforming the apartheid-era state institutions that it inherited and speeding the process of black economic empowerment and affirmative action policies.

The four-day national racism conference closes Saturday. Mbeki opened the conference, urging the country's minority whites to acknowledge racism and work toward closing the growing economic gulf between them and the country's blacks.

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