South African businessman and Chairman of Remgro, Johann Rupert speaks at the University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa on 15 October 2008. (Photo by Gallo Images/Foto24/Cornel van Heerden)
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have issued a statement reacting to Tuesday night’s Power FM interview with Johann Rupert, saying they are “pleased that the ultimate face of white privilege has been exposed for the whole country and our people to see”.
Rupert was interviewed by businessman Given Mkhari for the radio station’s annual Chairman’s Interview.
The statement slams the mega-rich Remgro and Richemont chairperson as “an arrogant, white Afrikaner who sees nothing beyond his selfish, racist, white capitalist interests”.
READ MORE: I’m not racist, says Johann Rupert
The party then says that it has “always warned” the country about Rupert, telling us “for many years” that he was actually “a president of whites in South Africa”.
The statement then congratulates “those blacks that confronted him, his racism, and his arrogance”. It is probably referring to the backlash Rupert’s interview received on social media. When Power FM’s Iman Rappetti stood up to ask Rupert a question during the interview, she also drew his attention to this backlash, letting him know that he had been called “out of touch” and “racist”.
Rappetti was thanked by none other than EFF leader Julius Malema for doing so.
She also took to Twitter herself to say that Rupert displayed “cognitive dissonance” in the interview. Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term for when someone struggles to reconcile the contradictory beliefs that person holds.
The EFF statement continues to say that the party does not “take it lightly” that Rupert said that he has protection from players in the taxi industry in the event that the party decides to “come for him”.
The party claimed to be a “nightmare” to Rupert, and expressed pride over that.
“No one who protects and speaks in the interest of white privilege must ever sleep peacefully as long as EFF exists,” the statement continued.
READ MORE: Johann Rupert talks about his conversation with Steve Biko on land
The statement ends by calling on black people to “realise that they are on their own” and should not “beg for recognition from an overtly, unapologetic white racist. No amount of appeal to the generosity of white arrogance will take us anywhere”.
The statement concludes with a quote from late struggle hero and black consciousness icon Steve Biko: “Black man, you are on your own.”
Rupert drew the most controversy in his interview near the end, when he said the early “downtrodden” generation of Afrikaners from which he was descended were “driven” and had raised themselves up by “studying like crazy and saving like crazy”.
“They didn’t go and buy BMWs and hang around at Taboo and The Sands all the time, okay?” This comment also drew laughter and applause from the audience.
READ MORE: Johann Rupert mocks ‘blacks’ who buy BMWs and go to Taboo instead of saving
Many interpreted his comment as being about his views on black people, although he later said he meant people in general, and said it was a generational thing rather than a racial thing.
He was also corrected by Mkhari for referring to black people as “the blacks”.
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