• BackaBuddy has suspended a campaign that was trying to draw in donations for Renaldo Gouws.
• The now suspended DA MP faces a fight in the Equality Court from the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).
• The crowdfunding platform says the campaign didn’t abide by its terms and conditions and donors will be refunded.

Last week, Renaldo Gouws, a South African that makes YouTube content and stirs controversy online became a Member of Parliament for the DA. That appointment was suspended almost as soon as it was penned.

This because an old video featuring Gouws using racial slurs emerged online forcing the DA to take action. Gouws claimed he had no knowledge of the video and would never have the slurs, suggesting that perhaps the video had been manipulated using artificial intelligence.

However, that excuse didn’t work and he was suspended pending an internal investigation by the DA. The South African Human Rights Commission also announced that it would be pursuing legal action against Gouws last week.

“Following assessment of the content, the Commission has concluded that utterances allegedly made by Mr Gouws constitute hate speech and/or harassment as contemplated in terms of sections 10 and 11 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 2000 (PEPUDA or Equality Act),” the SAHRC said last week.

In the days that have followed there has been debate about whether Gouws deserves this sort of treatment. Some have drawn comparisons to Julius Malema’s singing of “Dubul’ ibhunu” as comparable, forgetting that the song was found to not be hate speech. Importantly, many of Gouws’ supporters admit that the use of racist slurs was a bridge too far.

With the promise of a legal battle with the Human Rights Commission coming, some of Gouws’ supporters decided to collect funds for him via BackaBuddy. The creator of the campaign, a person going by Matthew Dickson, said they’d be collecting funds for Gouws’ legal battle and set a goal of R100 000.

The campaign reportedly reached donations amounting to around R48 000, but it was then deactivated by BackaBuddy.

Confusion spread quickly but the crowdfunding platform’s chief executive officer Patrick Schofield explained why the campaign was stopped.

“Our platform’s policies enable campaigns to launch immediately. Once a campaign is live, the vetting and validation of a campaign begins when funds start to be received,” the CEO explained.

“Following the vetting process, it was confirmed that this campaign did not meet the conditions of our T&C’s for hosting on our platform and was hence removed.” Schofield added.

Which terms and conditions were not met is unclear but campaigns must be verified to be eligible for pay out. This means the campaigner has to submit proof of identity, contact details or three references and supporting documentation that helps convey the legitimacy of the campaign. The terms related to BackaBuddy campaigns are exhaustive though and you can read them for yourself on the official website.

Something to note, however, is that BackaBuddy can decline campaigns which “aim to fund or form political parties, are political party affiliated or promote a political agenda” which it could be argued, Gouws’ potential legal battle would fall under. The platform can also just suspend a campaign for any reason it wants, as is its right.

As for those who donated to the campaign, BackaBuddy says they will be in touch to arrange refunds.

Following the fervour last week, the DA has gone silent and Gouws has yet to make a statement or issue an apology for the video in which he made racial slurs.

[Image – Renaldo Gouws on X]