Neighbour sues over racist Diwali post on Facebook
A GREYTOWN businessman is taking his neighbour to court for a racist Facebook post about Indians during the recent Diwali celebrations.
Regesh Govender was angered by Johan Olivier’s post after Govender lit fireworks last week for Diwali.
Olivier posted: “F**k this b*** s**t c**lie vaalie s***t if nspca dont sort this s***t out i will with some serios s**t” (sic).
Govender said: “My lawyer is filing papers at the Greytown Magistrate’s Court for hate speech, racism and crimen injuria charges. I want action taken against this man. I have barred him from my restaurant for making constant racist remarks. On Saturday, he came to my establishment claiming to want to apologise, but instead he threw tantrums.” When contacted for comment, Olivier said there was a typing error in his comment, and that the message was meant to show unhappiness about Diwali and the fireworks.
“What I meant to type was it was not cool on Diwali. I’m sorry for having used the “F-word. It’s just that those fireworks traumatise my pets and as an animal welfare activist, I get irritated when I see them getting traumatised. That was not a racist remark towards any religious or cultural group,” he said.
DA provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango said the party would be filing a charge of hate speech with the police and reporting the incident to the South African Human Rights Commission.