Announcer Govender must face the music

A SUDDEN moment of anger and a Facebook post cost Ravi Govender his job. What was going through his mind is beyond comprehension. Ravi is known for his serene disposition. As an announcer, he projected an air of calmness on the airwaves.

His motivation for his unsavoury post was a speech the president was making. He was literally reading it out without any feeling, and the delivery lacked emotion, Ravi explained.

Hence he used the word “zombie” as an adjective. Mistakes are normal human error, therefore he profusely apologised for the utterances he made. In spite of his apologies on various media platforms, he still received death threats, which seems to be the norm in our country.

The ANC Youth League in eThekwini is calling for Ravi to be jailed, stating that his comment constituted a hateful personal attack that could incite violence.

The president’s son is refusing to accept Ravi’s apology and threatening to take him to the Equality Court.

In the recent past, there have been vitriolic and even more scathing social media posts castigating the president. The famous Zapiro shower cartoon denigrating the president was also challenged. A charge of defamation was instituted against Jonathan Shapiro but later dropped by the president.

The damage has been done. Consequences of the action have to follow. Ravi needs to be served with formal papers advising him of the charges against him. So far, he has received nothing. If any sort of litigation is instituted, he has the right to defend himself, or he can plead culpability. For now Ravi has to adopt a waitand-see approach. Phoenix