Tip-off on WhatsApp sparks row over race

YET another social networking site group formed to improve the communication of a neighbourhood watch in a suburb is under fire over allegations of racism and discrimination against black people.

This after Sunnyside, Grahamstown, resident Martin Rushton mistook a woman journalist who was hitch-hiking home at night for a prostitute.

Seemingly unaware that the woman also lived at Sunnyside and was a member of the 700strong Sunnyside Security WhatsApp group, he posted: “Cock House corner girl looks like a prostitute judging by her gestures as I drove past.”

The hiker, Grocott’s Mail journalist Sine Goqwana, hit back on the group: “Martin Rushton how is this a security issue? For your information that girl happened to be me so next time you think of making such snide, uninformed and backward assumptions like a racist misogynistic pig, grow a pair and ask!”

Rushton said: “I was alerting the patrol team that there was a lady of the night making suggestive lewd gestures to me at 9.30 at night so that they [could] check what was happening.”

Rushton said he was traumatised by the woman after she took out her left leg and pointed her finger towards her private parts.

“My initial thought was that she was looking for a ride to Port Alfred and had no money to pay for it, and was showing how she [would] pay for it.”

Screen grabs of heated debate between members divided on racial lines have gone viral.

Defending Rushton, Jim Davis wrote: “Grow up. Just say a big thank you to the people who are protecting you at night. And remember to contribute towards their costs!”

Goqwana then argued that if Rushton was so concerned about her safety he would have stopped and offered her a lift home.

Other members of the group chose neutrality and called for the debaters to remove themselves from the group or simply stop arguing.

Goqwana is a niece of former Eastern Cape health MEC and ANC MP Bevan Goqwana.

She said she had stood next to the intersection of Market and George streets to hitch a ride home as she was scared of walking because some street lights were not working. She had been working late at the office. The Sunnyside neighbourhood watch’s night patrols have also been accused of prioritising addresses where white families reside.

The group was accused of having a “never-relax-around-blacks” attitude. Some group members accused others of only profiling black people and putting them on a criminal “watch” list.

Rushton rubbished the allegations of racism and defended himself, saying: “There are blacks, Indians and whites who are members of the group, so how can it be racist?

“We don’t tolerate any wrong activities whether you are black or white.”

He said crime had dropped by 90% since the neighbourhood watch was formed three months ago.

Next time you think of making assumptions like a racist pig, grow a pair and ask!