Father, son and unholy posts in motoring press row
● The South African Human Rights Commission is probing allegations that a leading motoring journalist made racist comments on Facebook and other social media — ostensibly calling black people gorillas and Indians rats.
Bernard Karl Hellberg snr, of Driven magazine, is also the subject of an investigation by the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists — a body his son chairs.
His son, Bernard Hellberg jnr, is also the publisher of Driven and a host of other magazines, including titles for state carrier South Africa Express, FlySafair, Bidvest Lounges and British Airways.
In a dossier that forms the basis of the SAHRC complaint, the elder Hellberg likens blacks to gorillas in a comment on a news story posted on Facebook.
In a comment posted on a Mail & Guardian article regarding the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association published in 2017, Hellberg snr writes: “The tricky part will be to get the bush out of these dancing bunnies.”
Engaging another reader in the comments thread of a Politicsweb article in 2016, Hellberg wrote: “Thank you for the vulgar, typically African 70 IQ response. I would not have expected anything less from a follower of the Thief in Chief.”
Of Indians, he said: “Those fellas probably worship rats as reincarnated relatives. Adds new meaning to the term rat race.”
The dossier was compiled by motoring journalist Thegandra Naidoo, who was expelled from the guild for a Facebook comment in which he spoke of the desire to kill motorcyclists.
The Human Rights Commission’s Gauteng provincial manager, Buang Jones, confirmed in a letter to Naidoo on Wednesday that the complaint fell within its mandate “and will be investigated”.
Naidoo wrote in a complaint to the guild: “In my opinion [his comments] amount to hate speech and he should be charged with crimen injuria and dismissed from the SAGMJ for his racist rants.”
Hellberg snr did not want to comment on the investigation but said he had been a victim of a smear campaign.
“The guild has not instituted disciplinary proceedings against me. Only if you are in the guild can you institute a complaint, so he [Naidoo] has no power.”
His son denied that he had, as guild chairman, been shielding his father from disciplinary action. He did not want to comment on the SAHRC investigation.