Lecture
Mark Oppenheimer and Trudy Gold
Thursday 15.10.2026
Mark Oppenheimer and Trudy Gold
South Africa at a Crossroads
Thursday 15.10.2026
How to watch
This lecture starts on 15 October at 5:00pm (UK).
Summary
South Africa emerged from apartheid with a constitution committed to non-racialism, individual rights, and reconciliation, yet its government has increasingly adopted race-based laws and policies permitting expropriation without compensation. This talk examines these developments alongside the contested boundary between freedom of expression and hate speech, drawing on leading cases involving offensive speech, historical symbols, and the “Kill the Boer” chant. We also consider South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, and asks what the country’s domestic and foreign policies reveal about equality before the law, constitutionalism, and the rule of law.
Mark Oppenheimer
Mark Oppenheimer has practised at the Johannesburg Bar for 15 years. He has appeared before the Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court in cases concerning freedom of expression and hate speech, several featured in Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression database. He led the televised Kill the Boer hate speech trial against the EFF and Julius Malema. He appears on television to discuss human rights and the rule of law. He has made submissions to Parliament on hate speech legislation and to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Mark is president of the Institute of Race Relations, a University of Cape Town Council member, and executive director of the Free Speech Union of South Africa. He hosts ‘Brain in a Vat’, a philosophy podcast with over 200 interviews, and has delivered lectures in America, the UK and South Africa.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.