Insulted at supermarket and retaliated

I recently witnessed an incident at a supermarket where a cashier allegedly called a customer ‘Shangingi’. The customer became extremely angry, picked up her tablet and hit the cashier on the head with it. Other customers and staff had to intervene. There has been a lot of debate on social media about who was actually wrong. Some say the cashier started everything by insulting the customer and, therefore, deserved the reaction, while others say words can never justify violence. Under Tanzanian law, can insulting someone amount to an offence? More importantly, if somebody seriously insults or humiliates me in public, am I legally entitled to hit them?

TM, Dar es Salaam

Two wrongs do not make a right and, in this case, they may potentially make two criminal offences. Under section 89 of the Penal Code, Cap. 16, a person who uses obscene, abusive or insulting language towards another person in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace commits an offence. Therefore, calling somebody an unpleasant name is not automatically a criminal act simply because that person feels offended. The words used, their meaning, the circumstances in which they were uttered, the manner in which they were said and whether they were likely to cause a breach of the peace would all be relevant.

However, being insulted does not ordinarily give you a licence to assault the person who insulted you. Under section 240 of the Penal Code, unlawfully assaulting another person constitutes common assault and is punishable by imprisonment for up to 1 year. Where the assault causes actual bodily harm, section 241 provides for a more serious offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, which carries imprisonment of up to 5 years. Whether hitting somebody on the head with a tablet falls within the latter offence would depend, amongst other things, on the injury actually caused and the available evidence.

Interestingly, Tanzanian criminal law does recognize the concept of provocation. Section 202 of the Penal Code recognizes that a wrongful act or insult may, in certain circumstances, amount to provocation where it is of such a nature as would be likely to deprive an ordinary person of self-control and induce that person to commit the kind of assault in question. This is, however, very different from saying that every insult legally justifies retaliation. The nature of the insult, immediacy of the reaction, proportionality of the response and all surrounding circumstances would need to be considered. Therefore, a cashier may potentially be answerable for abusive language, while an offended customer may separately be answerable for assault.