Sometimes it is easy to sympathise with people when they get manhandled by the long arm of the law. This idiot in Bloemfontein, however, will find any sympathy pretty hard to come by.

A pub owner has been ordered by the Bloemfonten Equality Court to pay R80 000 to a man he racially abused by using offensive language. TimesLive reports:

Patrick Prior was also ordered to make a written apology to Gilbert Makanda‚ a Zimbabwean national and a lecturer at the Central University of Technology‚ for using the k-word.

Makanda had misguidedly went to a bathroom designated for female patrons as he could not read the signage written in Afrikaans.

In this day and age it beggars belief that there are still people who think language like this is anything less than reprehensible. What happened to the customer is always right?

The decision has been applauded by the South African Human Rights Commission who released this statement:

The Commission is adamant that the judgment (sic) is in line with the objects of the Equality Act which provide remedies for victims of unfair discrimination‚ hate speech and harassment and persons whose right to equality has been infringed.

I wouldn’t call anything that comes out of this incident positive, but Makanda should be applauded for his decision to donate the fine to a charity organisation.

[source:timeslive]