Black SA man allegedly calls terror deaths of ‘whites’ a ‘blessing from God’
A radio presenter says a PE teenager needs to be given a 'little talking to' on racism and hate speech.
People light candles in front of floral tributes at a vigil in Albert Square in Manchester, northwest England on May 23, 2017, in solidarity with those killed and injured in the May 22 terror attack at the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured in Britain’s deadliest terror attack in over a decade after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester. British police on Tuesday named the suspected attacker behind the Manchester concert bombing as Salman Abedi, but declined to give any further details. / AFP PHOTO / Oli SCARFF
Algoa FM presenter Wayne Hart posted a screen grab on Wednesday night of a Twitter account he claimed to have come across the night before celebrating the deaths of 22 people, many of them children, in a terrorist attack in Manchester, England on Monday.
More than 50 people were also injured in the attack, understood to have been organised by terror group Isis. A man bombed a venue at which 23-year-old pop sensation Ariana Grande was performing.
The youngest victim of the blast was eight years old.
According to the tweet (allegedly since deleted), from an account Hart alleges belongs to “Abongile Gasa”, the deaths of the “white people” was a “blessing from God” and Gasa uses prayer emojis to suggest that he is praying to God for more such “blessings”.
According to information Hart could take from the account before it was set to “private”, Gasa described himself as a “fun-loving” 18-year-old student from Port Elizabeth who loves hip-hop.
There have been many fake Facebook and Twitter accounts set up over the past year to broadcast messages or racism and hatred, and there is every chance that this tweet also falls into this category.
However, Hart published a plea to whoever might know Gasa to “perhaps sit down with him and give him a little talking to” since racism and hate speech “should be condemned in every possible way”.
Wayne Hart’s Facebook post.
The post generated a number of comments, with Zodwa Dube saying: “Sad that a person so young feels like this. We should be moving from all this hate. What future does this country have with comments like this? And oh by the way this kid needs to know that black people like Ariana too and could have been amongst the deceased! Wayne ignore this dude, stop giving him the attention he is obviously seeking!”
Joshua Levack also advocated a policy of just ignoring people who post such things: “Yes, his comments are hateful and wrong, but should his opinion even be valued? For someone like him with that level or lack of emotional/mental standards to cause so much attention? It’s crazy that a child of 18 can cause such a backlash. Racism is wrong is any form, but perhaps we need to look at why people still have these attitudes, and level of anger and not short term solutions. We need to stop entertaining nonsense like this, by making it a thing. It gives him exactly what he wants… ‘a reaction’.”
