The head of the Human Rights Commission, Jody Kollapen, was turned away from a barber shop in Centurion, Pretoria because it has a whites-only policy.
Kollapen said he was refused a haircut at the Mans Haar Salon because it did not admit black customers. "An employee at the barber shop, apologetically, walked me to the door saying the owner had a whites-only policy and they had to adhere to it. He pointed me in the direction of a salon nearby."
Kollapen said the employee, Kobus Gloy, insisted, notwithstanding the owner's apparently racist ruling, "he is actually a nice guy".
But William Baloyi, a spokesperson for the mayor of Tshwane, Father Mkhatshwa, said racism would not be tolerated in the capital. "We have by-laws that will enable us to take immediate action against the owner of the salon. We strongly condemn the policy of cutting only white patrons' hair," he said. "This is not good for the image of the city. We will make sure we take appropriate action."
According to the by-laws, discrimination is outlawed as a practice in the city. "The country has laws against discriminatory behaviour and we are guided by that," Baloyi said.
However, the owner of the salon, Koos du Preez, said the fuss over Kollapen did not bother him. "It's my right to do business with whoever I want," he said.
When asked if this meant conducting business in defiance of the equality legislation which came into effect in June, Du Preez asked: "Which laws?"
Kollapen said he went to the salon in Logan Drive on September 24 after the commission received a complaint from a member of the public who was refused a haircut in June because he was black. "We wanted to follow the case after the equality laws had been passed fearing that in accepting the complaint we may have encountered technical hurdles later," he said.
On Thursday Kollapen lodged a complaint with the equality court in Pretoria set up in June as of part of 60 courts around the country to handle cases of discrimination.
Kollapen said he was disappointed that blatant racism was still being practised in the country 10 years after the advent of democracy and that was why he had reported the matter to the equality court.
"A number of complaints received by the commission revolve around issues of race, now we have the court and the law to take these cases a step further in order to deal positively with racism in our society," he said.
The equality courts are empowered to take punitive measures against anyone breaching the law, including in the case of businesses asking for an audit or requesting that municipalities suspend or revoke a trading licence.
Rudolph Jansen, the head of the Pretoria-based Lawyers for Human Rights, said that, due to the legacy of apartheid, petty discrimination would remain in South Africa for a long time.
"It's good for the equality courts to start listening to cases, such as these, but there are also a number of major ones brewing, like school fees being levied to exclude black pupils from Afrikaans schools," Jansen said.
Rob Skhosana, the equality legislation project manager, said about 10 cases had been received nationally, with current ones including a labour dispute and a few cases involving hate speech.