Cape Town – A crime watch group on Facebook has been slammed after one of its members suggested a homeless person should be “doomed” for allegedly peeing in a fountain.
A Facebook user, who took issue with the statements, made screengrabs of the conversation and shared it outside the closed group, which has 2573 members.
Kim Hirsch Horwitz, a member of the Atlantic Seaboard Crime Watch page, posted that she saw a vagrant urinating in a fountain on the Sea Point Promenade and was disgusted by it.
Another member, Cornell Karsten, then responded to the post saying: “We should DOOM them”.
He is called out by another member of the group, Carin Lilienfeld, who appears shocked when she asks: “DOOM vagrants?!”
To which Karsten responds: “Yes, have you not seen the evangelist spraying people with DOOM to heal them from illness? Somebody pissing in waterwell must be ill.”
But his comments did not sit well with Facebook user Lucy Graham, who posted screenshots of the posts, commenting: “White supremacist hate group Atlantic Seaboard Crime Watch now says we should ‘doom’ vagrants.”
Screengrab: Facebook
Karsten was presumably referring to a Limpopo pastor who made headlines last year for spraying his congregants with Doom insecticide, claiming it had ‘healing properties’.
A Limpopo court has since banned Prophet Lethebo Rabalago of the Mount Zion General Assembly (MZGA) church from using Doom on his flock.
Attempts to reach Karsten and the Atlantic Seaboard Crime Watch Group via Facebook and cellphones were not successful.
The South African Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday that while Karsten did not break any laws, his comments were insensitive.
HRC spokesman Gushwell Brooks says: “Following a cursory reading of the comments in this instance, the Commission finds such as constitutionally undesirable and unfortunate. It points to a lack of understanding of the plight of vulnerable members of the community who are homeless.”
In November, DA Sea Point ward councillor, Shayne Ramsay, also landed in hot water with the City of Cape Town after calling on residents to “march against grime” to rid Sea Point of homeless people.