Johannesburg - Penny Sparrow’s biggest cheerleader just won’t give up easily on his campaign to raise funds to bail her out of her troubles.
After crowdfunding site youcaring.com shut down Helgard Muller’s crowdfunding, launched to help Sparrow with her fine, he just went and started another campaign.
This time, the campaign is on ridersforhope.org, an organisation that describes itself as “A US national, nonprofit organisation that supports international justice”.
On Tuesday, Sparrow came out of hiding to try to defend herself on the racist post she made in January on Facebook, wherein she referred to black people as monkeys.
In an interview with YOU magazine, she said:”I am not a nasty person and I never meant to insult anyone. I was brought up with black people and I think they are wonderful.
“The black people that work for my daughter are lovely and kind.”
She reiterated her statements that to her, monkeys are cute and she does not view the word as a derogatory term, especially because she’s white.
“I know I mentioned monkeys and I know I said the majority was black-on-black, but there was a mix of people, I didn’t mean (it like that). On the coast there are hundreds of monkeys - they are cute; they come into my garden and empty my dustbins.
“On that day a troop of monkeys came to town and emptied the dustbins. It is a white thing. White people use monkey as a term of endearment when they are naughty or impish.”
Sparrow spoke out following a ruling on Friday by the Umzinto Equality Court in KwaZulu-Natal that slapped her with a fine of R150 000 fine for her post, which the fund-raisers are trying to help her with.
Though Muller seems to have taken a great liking to Sparrow particularly, he is no stranger to raising funds. The amputee cyclist has completed many cycling challenges to raise money for people with disabilities, including a trip across South Africa and a trip across the US.
Muller’s foot was amputated after an agricultural accident in the US, where he still lives to this day.
It is unclear whether any money has been donated in his new fund-raiser, which people can contribute to via the same PayPal account that Muller uses to raise funds for his own cause.
The Star