The thing about racism is that it’s ugly across the board, and trying to categorise which fool’s rant is worse than the other is to miss the point that it is all abhorrent to begin with.

Now I think we are all sick to death of hearing about Penny Sparrow, the woman who managed to lodge her foot so far up her own ass it could be seen in her mouth. Not that we should forget and move on, just that the subject has been covered sufficiently for the time being.

Meet Gauteng Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation department employee Velaphi Khumalo, the subject of internal disciplinary proceedings following some interesting opinions he shared on Facebook.

Let’s just start off by looking at the two posts in question then.

Like I said talking degrees of racism gets us nowhere, but those are some rather strongly-worded opinions right there. Over to the Mail and Guardian:

Acknowledging him as an employee, the department distanced itself from the “barbaric and racist utterances” made by Khumalo.

The racist remarks were his personal views and the department did not condone such hateful and disturbing racial slurs, it said in a statement on Wednesday night.

“The department of sport, arts, culture and recreation views the hateful post by Velaphi Khumalo in a serious light,” MEC Faith Mazibuko said.

“Our key mandate is nation building and social cohesion. His sentiments take our country backwards and do not reflect what the Gauteng provincial government stands for.”

The department has a communication policy which guides how employees must conduct themselves on social media.

An internal process was underway to address the matter, it said…

After numerous complaints from irate South Africans, Khumalo’s Facebook page was deleted on Wednesday.

A charge of crimen injuria has also been laid against him.

The SA Jewish Board of Deputies would also be laying a complaint against him with the SA Human Rights Commission, National Director Wendy Kahn said in a statement.

No one is saying Penny Sparrow shouldn’t be hauled over the coals, let’s not be silly and jump to that conclusion, but I think most level-headed South Africans would agree that words like Khumalo’s above don’t do anyone any favours.

[source:mg]