Johannesburg – Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa will launch the “Anti-Racism Song” on Wednesday amid continuing exposure of racism in the country.
The Arts and Culture department said Mthethwa will on Wednesday speak in Boksburg about the role of the performing arts particularly music in advancing the anti-racism agenda.
The move comes in the wake of a fresh racism row in Durban, where KZN’s Tourism MEC has initiated a probe into a Sodwana Bay guesthouse which recently denied accommodation to a black woman because of her skin colour.
An email from the guesthouse in reply to the woman’s enquiry for accommodation said in part: “Hi. We do not accommodate black or government officials any longer.”
In a statement the Department of Arts and Culture said: “Minister Mthethwa will also at the launch, unveil the Anti-Racism Song tackling the continuing salience of race and racism and the negative role social media has played in spewing the racial bigotry.
“The role of performing arts, particularly music during the anti-racism struggle gained the world’s attention by reflecting the important role it played in conjuring global human solidarity which exposed apartheid’s atrocities and gross human violations.”
The launch will culminate into a conversation on the role music can play to foster social cohesion and nation building.
In December 2015 a racist rant on Facebook saying black people where monkeys that littered the beaches in Durban landed KwaZulu-Natal realtor Penny Sparrow in hot water.
In an angry reaction to Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula’s ban of three sporting codes hosting international tournaments over race quota breaches, Cape Town resident Matthew Theunissen in May 2016 posted a racist rant on Facebook in which he used the k-word.
Earlier this month the Umzinto Equality Court ordered Sparrow to pay R150 000 to the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation as a fine for her racist comments.
Theunissen was ordered to do community service for sports development in a disadvantaged part of Cape Town.
African News Agency