Lauren sez, "A 25 year old sociology student at the University of Cape Town gave the finger to the presidential motorcade as they drove past him while he was jogging. President Zuma's bodyguards pulled over, put bundled him into the car and put a bag over his head. Later he was questioned about his political affiliations (just so happens he's a card-carrying member of the ANC) and his house was searched. Democracy Fail."
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said yesterday he doubted that insulting the president "would ever constitute crimen injuria". He described crimen injuria as the criminal defamation of another person by saying something without a defence for what had been said.
"The president is subject to the same laws as anyone else. The president is not more important merely because he happens to be in that position."
Asked whether it was legal for one person to show another the middle finger, De Vos said: "Yes, it would be completely legal. You would have been rude. It might show a lack of respect. You would not have defamed me, at best you would have been rude.
"If showing a middle finger was a criminal offence, half of South Africa would find themselves in prison."
(Thanks, Lauren!)
(Image: Smiley middle finger a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike image from quinn.anya's photostream)
