[imagesource: Angela Lang/CNET]

You’d think that after all the crimen injuria cases that have headed to court over the past few years, South Africans would think twice before using pejorative terms to describe those of a different race to their own.

And yet, some still treat social media as a private space where any and all thoughts, even the most racist ones, can be shared liberally without consequences.

Perhaps the most famous case – and the one that seemingly started it all – was the Penny Sparrow saga that rocked the country back in 2016. Sparrow, who has since passed away, referred to black beachgoers as “monkeys”.

Since then, a number of people have been dragged across the coals for sharing similar sentiments.

The latest criminal case has been opened against a Durban woman who took a leaf from the Sparrow book to describe President Ramaphosa.

Here’s TimesLIVE:

[A woman allegedly referred] to President Cyril Ramaphosa as an “ape trying to act like a first world president” in a Facebook post.

It is understood that a Bluff man took offence to a social media post by a woman from Pinetown on Tuesday and immediately went to the Brighton Beach police station to open a case against her.

In the post, the woman went on to accuse the government of mishandling the national lockdown and the coronavirus pandemic.

The man who alerted the authorities said that he was offended by the post.

“On the 23rd of April, I went up to my nearest police station in Brighton Beach to lodge a complaint and open a case against a lady that sent a Facebook page suggesting that the President is an ape pretending to act like a president of a first-world country. I did find the post distasteful and I did [not] hesitate to open up a case.”

Police spokesperson Brig Vishnu Naidoo confirmed that she used the term ‘ape’ in reference to the president.

The woman deactivated her Facebook account shortly after the post went viral. Perhaps she should have deactivated her Facebook account a long, long time ago.

Ramaphosa acted swiftly and efficiently when the coronavirus reached South Africa, garnering praise from around the world for his response to the pandemic. 

For more on his announcement last night, and what alert level four means, head here.

[source:timeslive]