South African Facebook Post Sparks Outrage

A Cape Town man has opened a criminal case against a Facebook user who called for blacks to do to white South Africans what “Hitler did to the Jews”.

For 21-year-old Daniel Amos, Velaphi Khumalo’s post was disturbing and needed to be addressed outside the realm of social media.

Amos opened a case of crimen injuria against Khumalo, after he said on Facebook that he hated all whites. He called for them to be “cleansed” out of the country.

“I want to cleans this country of all white people. We must act as Hitler did to the Jews. I don’t believe any more that the is a large number of not so racist whit people. I’m starting to be sceptical even of those within our Movement the ANC. I will from today unfriend all white people I have as friends from today u must be put under the same blanket as any other racist white because secretly u all are a bunch of racist fuck heads. as we have already seen [all sic],” he wrote.

Khumalo said he was unapologetic about his post. He did not respond to requests for comment.

The post was in response to a Facebook post by former KwaZulu-Natal estate agent Penny Sparrow, who compared black New Year’s revellers on the country’s beaches to monkeys.
Amos said he was offended by Khumalo’s post, which was circulated on Facebook on Tuesday.

“I find it extremely disturbing that 21 years after the end of apartheid, we still see racism from both white and black people.”

At a time when the country’s citizens should band together, people were spreading racial slurs and making generalisations about an entire race, based on one person’s comments, he said.

Amos said he would approach the South African Human Rights Commission.

Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC Van Wyk confirmed the case and said they were investigating.