SA plays the fun challenge
South Africans proved once again that they can turn even the most serious of issues into an opportunity to poke fun at themselves, when they turned the furore surrounding racist businessperson, Adam Catzavelos, into a funny social media challenge.
The #AdamCatzavelosChallenge saw Twitter and Facebook users emulate Catzavelos’ “weather report”, during which he celebrated not having a single “k **** r” on his foreign beach holiday, by expressing their joy at the absence of their own pet peeves.
This quickly led to comedian David Kau falling foul of the more “woke” users, when he expressed his joy at the lack of car guards, during his #AdamCatzavelosChallenge video.
Some felt it’s too soon to make fun of the issue, and that Kau would more likely get away with it because a comedian making fun of important issues comes with the territory and because Kau himself is black. However, white comedians Chris Forrest and Rob van Vuuren were among those who posted their own videos without receiving any backlash.
Kau spoke to The Citizen, saying he feels the backlash is just “Twitter being Twitter” and that he is “not going to lose any sleep over it.”
He said the majority of those who saw the videos found them funny, and that he can’t focus on the few who don’t. He said on Twitter your words get amplified to people who don’t follow you and that his followers would most likely find the video funny.
Not everyone was offended by the video though, with many saying they found it funny, with some even using it as an opportunity to start a discussion on car guards and their contribution to safety in their neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, Mbali Ntuli, former DA youth leader and current Gauteng campaigns director, took to Twitter to speak out to critics after she was accused of “deafening silence” over the Catzavelos’ racist video.
Ntuli said she is “sorry” for her inability to comment on “every single thing on Twitter even if I have elsewhere”. She added, in a sarcastic comment highlighting that she is suffering from mental health issues: “I guess my own depression, f**k outs and burnout should take a backseat today.”
Even rapper AKA attempted to get in on the debate by proposing his solution for racism in South Africa. He took to Twitter on Wednesday night and called for his followers to have “more mixed race babies to save the world”.
His suggestion didn’t meet with Twitter users’ approval though, with many questioning his understanding of the debate.
@JadeyNorth replied: “Someone tell this Autotune Man AKA you can’t kill racism by having mixed race babies.” @simphiwe1mill wrote: “Honestly I knew AKA is ignorant, but this is the dumbest thing, period. Racism is not segregation, racism is power to change a life.” – Citizen reporter