Principal apologises for calling for white people to be chased back to Europe

An Eastern Cape principal who advocated for white people to be chased back to Europe has apologised for his derogatory and racist social media tirade, after he was threatened with legal action.

According to lobby group AfriForum, Samthini Patrick Duna, the principal of Barkley East High School in the Joe Gqabi District Municipality, also had to remove the offensive post after the organisation’s attorneys sent him a letter.

Last month Duna wrote on his Facebook page: “some stupid white racists will never change and it does not matter how educated they are. I wish we could have a shrewd and firm leader like Paul Kagame. Someone who would let these nuisances rot in jail or chase them back to Europe like he did to the Chinese”.

ALSO READ: Racism remains SA’s most stubborn problem, as SAHRC sees spike in complaints

Natasha Venter, AfriForum’s Adviser for Education Rights, said these types of statements were unacceptable and particularly worrying coming from someone in a position of authority, who is in charge of children’s education.

“This post was made in front of anyone who has access to Duna’s Facebook page – including learners at the school. As principal, he was supposed to set an example, but rather he chose to incite racial hatred by making this post. We hope that Duna really learned from this incident and will choose not to really judge people on the color of their skin in the future – as he indicated in his apology letter,” she said.

She said Duna has also indicated in his apology that he does not believe that anyone should be locked up or expelled to Europe on the basis of their race, and that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. 

The organisation said the provincial department of basic education had also indicated that disciplinary action will be taken pending pending an investigation into the post.

She said AfriForum will monitor these proceedings.

In 2016 late estate agent Penny Sparrow was found guilty of hate speech in the Equality Court for describing black people as “monkeys” in a social media post.

It emerged shortly afterward that Sparrow was previously employed by a prominent national estate agency, who promptly distanced themselves from the controversial racist.

Sparrow, meanwhile dug in her heels, and instead of apologising insisted that there was nothing racist about her posts.

Another real estate agent, Vicki Momberg, was sentenced to two years in jail, with an additional one year suspended, in March 2018 in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court for calling a black police officer the k-word in 2016.

Similar to Sparrow, Momberg also maintained that her behaviour was not as bad as it was made out to be, and continued to commit several other racist faux pas throughout her trial and subsequent imprisonment.

siphom@citizen.co.za