UNDER FIRE Vanessa Hartley has apologised for racist comments attributed to her Facebook account on the weekend.
Hartley commented on a Facebook group for Hout Bay residents that black people were "like stupid animals". “We should tie them to a rope. To many Africans flocking to Hout Bay. Draw up a petition. Soon there will be nothing left of Hout Bay (sic)”.
Hartley, an employee of a Cape Town security company, deleted her comment as soon as the social media storm broke, and soon afterwards her Facebook account, but not before she issued an apology.
Hartley claimed that she never made the comments, and that she was at a bar, and her phone was not in her possession.
“Hi. I would like to apologise for comments that was made on FB via my phone was at the bar and someone thought they were very funny but now they upset me and a lot of people. I am sorry for leaving my phone lying around and here is my public apology (sic),” posted Hartley.
Yesterday, the administrator of the Hout Bay connect group, where the comments were posted, said in a separate post that he had decided to delete the thread where the post was made and that he had received several threats from angry social media users. Other posters said that reports that Hartley lived in Hout Bay were not true.
In the meantime, Hartley’s business card was splashed all over social media, along with her cellphone number. Her phone was switched off.
The ANC in the Western Cape yesterday confirmed that it had lodged a racism complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission.
This incident occurred less than two weeks after ward 54 councillor Shayne Ramsay faced a social media backlash after she classed the homeless people in the area in three categories: “Criminals (who are in and out of overcrowded prisons), mentally retarded or social outcasts, and those who are generally down on their luck.”
Hartley could share the same fate as convicted racist Penny Sparrow, whose woes worsened after she was ordered to pay the ANC a “substantial amount” for a failed appeal. She has already been ordered to pay R150 000 to the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation, plus an additional R5 000 for her racist slurs earlier this year.
This after the then-DA member took to Facebook after New Year's Day and referred to black people on Durban’s packed beaches as “monkeys” who had no education.