Controversial Cape Flats Pastor Oscar Bougardt received a slap on the wrist on Friday after a Western Cape High Court judge found him guilty of contravening a court order prohibiting him from spreading hate speech about gays.
Instead of the 30-day jail term and R500 000 fine his contravention warrants, Bougardt received a five-year suspended sentence.
Bougardt appeared before Judge Lee Bozaleck, who found him guilty of hate speech and contravening a court order of 2014 following a plea deal, in which he agreed not to discriminate against homo- sexuals or incite hatred or violence against them.
Bougardt, of the Calvary HOPE Ministries in Strandfontein, was saved by the SA Human Rights Commission - the very group who brought the charges against him, who asked the court for leniency as they realised the Pentecostal pastor would not be able to pay the R500 000 fine.
Bougardt landed in trouble in 2014 over repeated homophobic remarks he made on social media, including a suggestion that gays be locked in cages like animals.
He agreed to stop making derogatory statements against gays again. However, in 2016 he described homosexuals as “criminal” and said “99 percent of paedophiles have (a) homosexual background”.
In 2015, he said: “To hell with homosexuals, ...their lifestyle is an abomination to God, but Christians in South Africa are too scared to speak out against (it).”
In another post on Mambaonline in 2015, Bougardt responded to an article where Nigeria called on homosexuality to be illegal and he saluted that country’s president.
Video: Genevieve Serra/Daily Voice
“If I was the president of my country, I would lock them in cages where they belong. They don’t even deserve a prison cell,” he said according to a transcript of his remarks read out in court.
Judge Bozaleck found him to in contempt of his court order.
Bougardt claimed that he didn’t know about the 2014 court order, but Bozaleck said the holy man would have received copies of it via post and email.
Bozaleck added despite Bougardt’s religious beliefs, his statements incited people to “dehumanise” homosexuals.
Last week Bougardt’s lawyer, Advocate Christa Verster, said the pastor had agreed to withdraw from some online forums and that he would write a letter of apology to the LGBTI community.
He would also be ending his association with Steven Anderson, an anti-gay pastor in the USA.
Andre Gaum, of the SAHRC, says they welcome the ruling and he hopes Bougardt has learnt his lesson.
“I think it is fair to say that unfair discrimination and hate speech against people of the homosexual community is unacceptable. This is an opportunity for all of us to embrace diversity.”
A relieved Bougardt said he would continue to preach the word of God: “But I will be cautious on how I say things, I never intended to bring harm to anyone.”