Ebola apology rejected

Cosatu has rejected an apology by Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba for his remarks about Ebola.

And the Human Rights Commission says it will be contacting him about his remarks, “which could be regarded as a violation of the constitution”.

The labour federation in Gauteng urged city residents not to accept the apology because it was not “genuine”.

Mashaba made controversial remarks on Twitter about his citizen’s arrest of an undocumented foreign national pushing cow heads on a trolley in the Johannesburg CBD.

He later made a U-turn as anger mounted on social media.

“I apologise most sincerely to our residents for my comments relating to the meat also presenting a potential risk of an Ebola outbreak,” he said.

“I also apologise for what has appeared to be insensitivity towards the plight of informal traders in our city attempting to earn a living.”

An epidemic in West Africa in 2013-2016 was the most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history. A current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has so far killed more than 200 people.

Cosatu provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile said Mashaba’s statements were a slap in the face for small traders and poor households that depended on these traders for food.

And SowetanLIVE reported that Human Rights Commissioner Angie Makwetla said: “You can’t say that people are going to bring Ebola . . . You are scaring people.

“When we come across leaders who make statements which may border on xenophobic . . . which don’t even have facts to support them‚ then we need to be careful.” –