Anger greets racist Facebook comment

CALL TO PROSECUTE WHITE WOMAN WHO MADE DENIGRATING POST AGAINST BLACK BEACHGOERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Many South Africans reacted furiously on Monday to what they described as the racist remarks of a white woman who criticised black beachgoers in a Facebook post.

Even political parties are commenting on the case, which has ignited fresh debate about South Africa’s legacy of white minority rule. Apartheid ended with allrace elections in 1994.

Authorities should prosecute the woman, Penny Sparrow, for “infringing the dignity” of all South Africans and “dehumanising” blacks, the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said in a statement. The party said it plans to suspend Sparrow’s party membership.

Sparrow’s initial post Saturday insulted black people enjoying New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day on the beaches in Durban, in South Africa’s east coast province, Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Sparrow wrote that some people celebrating the new year at public beaches were making a mess.

“I do know some wonderful thoughtful black people,” she wrote. “This lot of monkeys just don’t want to even try.”

“To allow them loose

is inviting huge dirt and discomfort and troubles to others,” she wrote.

Later, Sparrow told 24, a South African news outlet, that she “said it as I felt it” and that she had intended to comment on littering by black revellers rather than make any offensive remark. She also said her phone had been inundated with angry messages.

Apology posted

Sparrow posted an apology on Facebook saying the comments were “not meant to be a personal thing.” Her defence of the remarks Monday in an interview with News 24 only made things worse. Sparrow appeared sorrier to be at the centre of a viral media storm than about the offence her comments caused. She also repeated the monkey comparison.

“I am sorry that it has taken such a viral turn, but it was just a statement of how it was,” she said. “I made the mistake of comparing them with monkeys. Monkeys are cute and they’re naughty. ... I wasn’t being nasty or rude or horrible, but it’s just that they make a mess. It is just how they are.”

In a separate case, Standard Bank on Monday suspended one of its economists in South Africa for remarks that the bank described as having “racist undertones,” South African media reported.

The economist, Chris Hart, tweeted Sunday that “the victims are increasing along with a sense of entitlement and hatred towards minorities” more than two decades after apartheid, the African News Agency said. Hart later tweeted an apology, saying his comments were “meant to be read in context of slow growth.”

The ruling African National Congress party said it was troubled by the social media comments.