‘We must act as Hitler did to the Jews’

OWN CORRESPONDENT

The following statement issued by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies at 19:00 is self-explanatory and published verbatim.

‘Don’t fight racism with racism’, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) message yesterday, has sadly already been ignored with the latest outburst of hate speech, this time from an employee of the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation.

Following a letter sent to the Department this morning, it has now been confirmed to the SAJBD that Velaphi ‘Vel-hova’ Khumalo is indeed their employee.

Khumalo launched a hate-filled tirade against white South Africans on Facebook, stating that he wants to “cleans [sic] this country of all white people”, and that “we must act as Hitler did to the Jews. I don’t believe any more that the [sic] is a large number of not so racist whit [sic] 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 [sic] must be put under the same blanket as any other racist white because secretly u all are a bunch of racist f**k (Jewish Report asterisks) heads. as we have already seen [sic],”

Velaphi Khumalo’s comments are the latest in a series of hate-filled and racist posts on social media this week. As the SA Jewish Board of Deputies we wish to reiterate that such deplorable comments and behaviour have no place in democratic South Africa, and should be condemned in the harshest of terms.

The SA Jewish Board of Deputies is also encouraged by the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation’s unequivocal condemnation of what they termed, “barbaric and racist utterances” and “hateful and disturbing racial slurs”. Furthermore we welcome the swift manner in which the Department has already instituted internal processes to respond to this matter, which is indicative of their commitment to fight racism.

In the coming days the SAJBD will also submit a formal complaint to the SA Human Rights Commission.

Echoing our previous statement in which we condemned the spate of racist posts on social media, the SAJBD appeals for all South Africans to desist from fanning racial sentiments and work together to build an inclusive nation true to the values of equality and freedom enshrined in our Constitution.

The statement was issued by SAJBD national director Wendy Kahn.