Year of racial outbursts on social media
AS HARD as the deaths of Prince, David Bowie and Muhammad Ali were, the true tragedy for South Africa in 2016 was the explosion of racial outbursts that revealed just how divided we still are.
Two decades after the dawn of democracy, and many are still discriminating, hurting, and judging on the basis of race.
And social media has revealed that 2016 was the year of the racist.
It all began on January 2 when KwaZulu-Natal estate agent, Penny Sparrow, took to Facebook to compare black beachgoers to monkeys.
“I shall address the blacks of South Africa as monkeys as I see the cute little wild monkeys do the same pick drop and litter,” she wrote in a post that went viral.
Sparrow initially tried to defend her post by saying she was merely “stating the facts”. But she could not defend her actions in two courts of law. She was found guilty of hate speech in the Equality Court and ordered to pay R150 000 to the Adelaide and Oliver Tambo Foundation.
Later, she pleaded guilty to crimen injuria, and was given a choice of a R5 000 fine or 12 months in jail. She paid the fine in instalments. In May, Justice Minister Michael Masutha put High Court Judge Mabel Jansen on special leave after comments she made to journalist Gillian Schutte were made public on Facebook. Earlier that month, Schutte posted excerpts of a year-old exchange she had with Judge Jansen on the social network.
Judge Jansen was quoted as saying of black people: “In their culture a woman is there to pleasure them. Period. It is seen as an absolute right and a woman’s consent is not required... I still have to meet a black girl who was not raped at about 12. I am dead serious.” The judge said she was referring to rape cases she had presided over. She apologised on social media and said the comments were taken out of context and were private. She had just lost her husband in a car accident.
On May 2, Capetonian Matthew Theunissen went on a racist rant on his Facebook page against the government in reaction to news about a lack of transformation in sport: “So no more sporting events for South Africa. I’ve never been more proud than to say our government are a bunch of (k-word deleted)… yes I said it so go f**k yourselves you black f***ing c***s.”
His comment followed the announcement by Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula that certain national sporting codes would be suspended from participating internationally because of a failure to meet transformations targets.
The SA Human Rights Commission was asked to investigate.
After a conciliation meeting, he reached a settlement which would see him do community service in a poor‚ disadvantaged area for three to six months and attend anger management therapy.
Ntokozo Qwabe, a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, made international news when he wrote on Facebook: “The waitress comes to us with a card machine for the bill to be sorted out. She sees the note & starts shaking. She leaves us & bursts into typical white tears (like why are you crying when all we’ve done is make a kind request? lol!).”
His actions were widely criticised, including by the ANC and his own father. A campaign raised R150 000 for the waitress. Later a petition was started to have Qwabe expelled from Oxford University. The university rejected the petition on the grounds that he was entitled to free speech. Qwabe later said he had no regrets over his comments.
What was arguably the worst racial incident of 2016 also had its beginnings on social media.
In November a video of a white man forcing a black man into a coffin, and then threatening to douse him with petrol and set him alight, began circulating. Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson had accused Victor Rethabile Mlotshwa of trespassing and, allegedly at gunpoint, forced him into the coffin.
Oosthuizen and Martins Jackson have been kept behind bars after they failed to get bail in the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court.
The pair face charges of kidnapping and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Then there was that matter of black hair, when pupils at Pretoria Girls High took to the streets to protest against alleged racism by white teachers. A section of the school’s code of conduct related to hairstyles and instructed the girls to chemically straighten their hair.
The Department of Basic Education later said legislation on schools’ codes of conduct would be reviewed to ensure that discriminatory policies were eradicated.
One racial incident this year appeared to be just a stupid mistake.
Mike Dzange was suspended from Cape Town’s The Bungalow restaurant after he identified two patrons as “2 blacks” on their bill. A picture of the bill went viral on the internet. The ANC Youth League became involved and told the media that Dzange, who is black, had written a letter apologising to The Bungalow management. It emerged that he had written “2 blacks” to identify the customers. He was recently reinstated.
And just when it seemed that the racial rants for 2016 were over, the K-word once again appeared on Facebook. A Middelburg businessman had to resign as chief executive after he used the term in reference to a farm attack. He later apologised and told media that he was not a racist but “an idiot”.