A lobby group for South Indians has vowed to pursue legal action to get a popular comedy skit off the airwaves.
At a meeting of the Mount Edgecombe Tamil Action Group (TAG) on Sunday it was decided that they would approach the Human Rights Commission or the Equality Court to lodge a formal complaint against the gags of Lotus FM’s comedy duo, Peru and Bala.
The characters, known as the uncles of sit-down comedy, are the creations of radio jockeys Vikash Mathura and Ray Maharaj and feature on their Saturday morning show.
Ashwin Singh, a retired academic, said he had been writing to Lotus FM station manager Alvin Pillay for about a year. “The show is a mockery and denigrates South Indians. The degradation of South Indians and women has been going on unabated for years.”
He said he had tried to lodge a complaint with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission last week, but was told to record the specific time and offending utterances. “Over the years, these alter egos of Mathura and Maharaj have crossed the line, and with their show now going around the country, they are just creating division.”
Singh, who is of north Indian decent, said Mathura and Maharaj’s alter egos, Peru and Bala, told jokes which had started off as mildly tolerable, but escalated to being vulgar.
“The one time one of them said he was going to buy a three-piece swimsuit for his wife, a bottom and top piece and the third to use as a blindfold because his wife is so fat. Another he said his wife was going running and he would drive behind her with a sign reading ‘abnormal load’. It is embarrassing and derogatory towards women.”
Attorney for the group, Jessica Gounden, said it was a shame that after the country had gone through lengths to empower women, these men were perpetuating a negative image and disrespect.
Lotus FM and SABC did not respond to queries when contacted. - Daily News