Women and Children Minister Lulu Xingwana

This weekend, the City Press reported that Minister Lulu Xingwana, on being told she couldn’t have her flight seat upgraded from economy to business class, she merely enquired, “whether or not this was because she is a k****r?” The alleged incident happened on a SAA flight from Accra, Ghana. An unnamed passenger explains what happened:

It started when she refused to let her hand luggage be stowed away for take-off. The minister was like a naughty child. She snatched the bag and put it on her lap with her arms locked around it. I was shocked and embarrassed. This was a national minister. When an air hostess told her she could not be upgraded to business class because she held an economy class ticket, she responded: ‘But I am a shareholder of this company.’ Another SA Airlines employee apologised and explained that the business class section was full. She then started shouting at the (white) hostess: ‘Shut up, shut up, is it because I am a kaffir?'”

Xingwana’s spokesperson Cornelius Monama has responded by saying it is all “sensational hot air”, and accused the paper of “one-sided and biased journalism.” In a statement, Xingwana she she had “politely” asked to be upgraded to business class and was “shocked by the rude and disrespectful attitude she received”. Monama said it was not clear why the air hostess wanted to take Xingwana’s handbag away: “We don’t know why it is wrong to put a small hand-bag on one’s lap”.

In November, Xingwana said in Parliament that, due to her health, she could not fly “la-la class”.

[Source: News24]