Phumzile Van Damme | Image: Twitter
Democratic Alliance MP and Shadow Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Phumzile Van Damme literally had to take matters into her own hands following a confrontation with a family at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront.
Van Damme took to Twitter to share the aftermath of what she has labelled a “racist” ordeal.
She began her thread with a video of the premises’ on-duty manager who attended to Van Damme after the incident.
She followed that up with an image of the family in question and proceeded to explain why she punched one of the family members in the photo in the head.
According to Van Damme, she acted in self-defence after he swore at her and “was threatening violence”.
The MP demanded that the mall ban the family from the premises in order to show that they were serious.
Van Damme has refused to officially comment on the matter.
She even declined the Black First Land First’s (BLF) show of support.
The V&A Waterfront was made aware of the matter shortly after Van Damme sent her tweets and are currently working to remedy the situation.
An update and a statement will be communicated in due course.
UPDATE:
“We have noted the incident relayed by Ms Phumzile Van Damme via her twitter profile, and we are engaging with her directly on this issue, as well as with the security manager involved to get a full account of the incident. We are also reviewing the video footage of the alleged incident,” said the V&A Waterfront in a statement.
“We do not tolerate any act of racism at the V&A Waterfront, an environment which daily, sees thousands of visitors from all walks of life, from all over the country, and all over the world, enjoying its facilities. We would ban anyone who displays racist behaviour on the property, with immediate effect,” added the V&A Waterfront.
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