Cape Town – The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AKF) on Thursday condemned the racist comments made by realtor Penny Sparrow and similarly offensive comments made by Gauteng sports, arts, culture and recreation department employee, Velaphi Khumalo.
“As with the Penny Sparrow incident, we strongly condemn Khumalo’s racist statements,” said AFK director Neeshan Balton.
“We also condemn his call to ‘act as Hitler did to the Jews’ and ‘cleanse’ South Africa of white people.”
Khumalo had posted the offending comments on his personal Facebook page. The department said on Thursday that it had begun its internal processes into the matter and distanced itself from Khumalo’s comments.
Balton, called Khumalo’s reference in this manner to the horrors of the Holocaust was “outrageous”.
“This is clearly a case of hate speech,” he said.
Balton added that as a public servant, Khumalo was expected to serve South Africans irrespective of race and if Khumalo believed in the killing of his white countrymen, he was ill-suited for the public service.
“There is no place for racists within the public service,” said Balton.
African News Agency
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