Durban - The ANC and DA plan to lay charges on Wednesday over racist Diwali rants posted on the Gatvol Bluff Facebook page and elsewhere online.
But an analyst has criticised parties for making political capital out of online slurs instead of properly dealing with the problem.
DA leader in KwaZulu-Natal, Zwakele Mncwango, said he would lay charges of crimen injuria at the Brighton Beach Police Station.
DA KZN chairman Haniff Hoosen said: “This language has no place in our constitutional democracy, where the right to religious freedom is enshrined in our Bill of Rights. It is disgustingly hateful and fundamentally undermines the dignity of many South Africans.”
The ANC in KZN promised to lay charges against “several individuals” at the Durban Police Station today and planned to pursue the matter in the Equality Court.
The party said: “The ANC remains resolute in its campaign to continue building a non-racial country by isolating racists still hiding in our communities.”
One Facebook post described Hindus as “idol worshippers” and “Devil disciples” and said they should go back to India.
The comment was one of many made online during Diwali celebrations over the weekend as fireworks angered some.
The poster later apologised.
He was, however, not the only person who made hurtful comments directed at the Indian community.
Other Facebook users derided the comments as being offensive.
Political analyst Themba Khumalo said political parties were using such instances of social outrage to gain political mileage and promote their profiles, but did not do anything concrete to fight racism.
He said the Gatvol Bluff situation was being “exploited” by the parties.
Khumalo said political parties did not have any programmes that fought racism.
He said: “This could be one of the reasons people are losing interest in politics.”
Khumalo said there needed to be programmes which dealt with issues of racism before there were incidents like the one involving Penny Sparrow, which created social uproar.
“We are still divided along racial lines,” said Khumalo, adding that political parties had failed to truly unite South Africans, who were divided not only along racial lines but also along ethnic groupings.