Huge ‘tip’ raised for bullied waitress

REDUCED TO TEARS: Waitress Ashleigh Schultz A CAPE Town waitress who was victimised by a #RhodesMustFall leader says she can now spend time with her mother, who is suffering from cancer, thanks to two fundraising campaigns on her behalf.

Ashleigh Schultz, 23, who works at Obz Cafe in Observatory, served RMF leaders Ntokozo Qwabe — a student at Oxford University — and Wandile Dlamini.

When the bill came, instead of indicating an amount for the tip, Dlamini wrote: “We will give tip when you return the land”.

Qwabe later boasted on Facebook, saying: “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!).”

In response, Sihle Ngobese — spokesman for Western Cape social development MEC Albert Fritz — and two associates started a Twitter fundraising campaign on Schultz’s behalf.

A crowdfunding initiative was also started on gofundme.com, and by yesterday afternoon about R25 000 had been raised.

“I was a bit shocked and I was dumbstruck,” Schultz said.

She said Qwabe had been to the restaurant many times and nothing of this nature had happened. “I can now use this money to put down a deposit on a place near my mom and be with her because she is sick. I can also stop working for a while.”

Ngobese said he found Qwabe’s post “insulting, racist and disgraceful”.

“If you want to talk about privilege‚ being a master’s graduate from Oxford and lording it over a minimum-wage waitress is the height of irony. It speaks to the disdain I have for RMF’s claims to being a voice for the downtrodden.” ’KIND REQUEST’: Oxford student Ntokozo Qwabe