No excuses

IN A matter that shows a glimpse of how racism often goes hand-in-hand with arrogance and ignorance by perpetrators was displayed in a story Sowetan ran on Friday.

A former employee at SARS seems to think, by his litigious actions at least, that it is indeed okay to call black people the kword. After he was dismissed from SARS, JJ Kruger took the taxman to the CCMA, which reinstated him. SARS is now taking its fight to have Kruger’s dismissal affirmed all the way to the Constitutional Court.

He was fired for calling his boss, Abel Mboweni, a k ***** in October 2007, and says he was under a lot of stress when he uttered the highly derogatory word. Now Kruger says because there is “no evidence of the irretrievable breakdown” of his relationship with his boss and SARS, he must be given his job back. This despite the fact that he has proven to be a racist.

While it is Kruger’s right to exhaust all his legal options to defend himself, his action smacks of self-importance and portrays someone who is willing to try various legal gymnastics to avoid paying the price for his crime.