Cape Town - Allegations of racism at a local children’s swimming school escalated into a row on Facebook that quickly went viral on Saturday.
The owner of the school, Swim4Life, at the centre of the row has vehemently denied it is guilty of any wrongdoing.
“We are not racist. This has got nothing to do with race,” Ross Johnston told Weekend Argus on Saturday.
Allegations of racism were made by southern suburbs resident Aimee-Noel Mbiyozo.
Yesterday Johnston contacted her to try to explain what she said was a miscommunication which had led to her labelling the school racist.
But Mbiyozo told Weekend Argus she had hung up as she had nothing further to say to him.
“It’s not a dispute. With businesses that have that mentality, it’s goodbye,” she said.
Mbiyozo said that two months ago she initially asked if Swim4Life could this month accommodate her two children for group swimming lessons, and was told she would be notified closer to the time.
On Tuesday she e-mailed the swimming school again asking if there was space for her children and was told there were no spots available.
“Something about that just felt funny,” Mbiyozo said. So she created an e-mail account under the name Sarah Julia Anderson and e-mailed the school, asking if she could enrol her children, aged one and three, for lessons.
The school replied that there was space for individual classes for the three-year-old at a Claremont gym and classes were available at their Newlands home for the one-year-old.
Mbiyozo then took to Facebook and posted the e-mails, saying: “And here it is in black and white – racism in Cape Town.”
She was referring to the different responses she received when using another name.
Mbiyozo urged people to share her post. “Not because I am into spreading bad news, but because there should be a cost for companies to carry on like this,” she wrote.
Within a few hours the post had been shared more than 150 times, a number which steadily grew throughout the evening.
Johnston, via Swim4Life’s Facebook page, then responded to Mbiyozo’s post saying he was devastated by it.
“We have pools at different locations that offer different lesson types. This is why some pools may have availability and some pools may not.”
He said her initial inquiry, under her actual name, asked about group lessons, which were only run at Newlands and were full.
Johnston said Mbiyozo’s second inquiry, under the name Sarah Julia Anderson, asked specifically about the Claremont venue, which hosted individual classes.
“I am sure you can see this is a case of complete misunderstanding as your initial inquiry was for Newlands and the second inquiry was for Claremont. This has nothing to do with racism at all, I can assure you we are a multicultural school and family and do not have a bad bone or intention in our body,” he posted.
He apologised for not giving her a full list of options about available classes and offered to accommodate her children at any available classes she felt were suitable.
But Mbiyozo hit back, saying Johnston should stay away from her because of his “sh***y attitude”.
“In case this needs to be clarified this is absolutely NOT about hardship done to our family – there are bigger issues than children’s swim lessons and plenty more providers that are not racist. This is about a mentality that lurks and is sadly prevalent here in the southern suburbs.”
Sunday Argus