EFF call to probe son of Hofmeyr
THE EFF on the West Rand has called on police and the Human Rights Commission to investigate the son of Afrikaans singer and songwriter Steve Hofmeyr over allegations of hate speech and incitement of violence towards black people.
Devon Hofmeyr has been on social media parading what is viewed as racist arrogance and making remarks that have been seen as inciting white people in Randfontein to rise up against black people.
On Monday, Devon almost came to blows with members of the EFF who removed a picture of an Afrikaner politician Jan Viljoen, who is the patron of the controversial school, Hoërskool Jan Viljoen.
The EFF had removed the picture of Viljoen, stating that it should be replaced by a photo of President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi.
“That school does not belong to Jan Viljoen. There was no picture reflecting the new South Africa in that school. We took that picture down. Viljoen was a boer, a hero we cannot celebrate him,” the fighters said.
Devon has also allegedly been seen saying things such as South Africa belongs to white people and that black people have never built a school on their own.
The chairperson of the EFF on the West Rand region, Tumi Molusi said the EFF was the only party that could challenge alleged racists like Devon. He said the EFF would lay charges of incitement of violence against Devon.
“Even students know that he is racist because of the things that he posts on Facebook. One thing that we will not do is tolerate racism. That school is a public school,” Molusi said.
Molusi said there were other ex-Afrikaans schools in the area where racism was allegedly rife and nothing had been done about the situation.
“We as the EFF are going to visit some of these schools because some of these schools are in our space and they are public schools, if they want them to be independent, they must take them elsewhere,” Molusi said.
He said what shocked him the most was that police seemed to be more sympathetic to white people than black people and that on Monday, when black and white parents had come to the school, police were shooting rubber bullets in the direction of the black parents and not the white parents.
“The police started shooting at the black parents and then afterwards the police sprayed our African children with a water cannon in front of everyone there,” Molusi said.
Molusi said the EFF had become involved because they had received messages from the Grade 12s asking them to intervene.
“This is not over. There are right wing groups in the West Rand and they have guns and they stood there with guns and the police did nothing,“he said.
Lesufi was scheduled to meet with parents of learners at Hoërskool Jan Viljoen on Tuesday evening but the meeting was postponed to today. Learning has been suspended.
The Star had attempted several times to get comment from Devon but was unsuccessful.