I had a discussion with a lawyer friend about this issue.
This was dealt with in a civil court firstly, which means it was a lower court. Which basically means there is a severe curtailing of their powers. Specifically on the amount they can change a fine.
So basically a court at this level can choose to either not charge her with hate speech (which is not the case) or charge her and award the fine. At this level the courts can only change a fine by a specific amount. Which is the reason why the ANC's original figure of R200k got sliced down to R150k.
What likely happened is the judge recommended the case to be taken to a higher court where a more reasonable fine can then be imposed. Which is probably going to happen. So she is probably going to appeal. The media are keeping very vague about the specifics of the court details.
So that is the legal side. Politically, this plays into the ANC's hands perfectly. They get to hark on now about justice for black people, then when it gets appealed and lowered, they can hark on about how racist the judge and the judiciary is to their supporters.
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