Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has been called out on Twitter for posing a question about racial profiling at an upmarket restaurant in Clifton.
On Monday a picture of the food bill at The Bungalow handed to Scott Maqetuka and his friend went viral.
The bill which had the table number, waiter’s name, number of patrons, date and time also had the note “2 Blacks” typed on it. The story went public on Tuesday .
On Wednesday Zille tweeted: “Why is it ok to racially classify people for jobs, but not to identify people at a table by their race?”
The tweet, posted at around 8am, was subsequently removed.
On the social media platform Zille’s decision to post her views on the matter was questioned by many Twitter users, trending with more than
2 000 tweets.
Thembi Nkalishane wrote: “In any situation, as a leader, is this the best you can do or think?”
Moreki oo Modumo wrote: “... How were you a leader when you still don’t get this? Why are you even in politics?”
Kevin Dantu said: “Oh come on Helen. You are embarrassing yourself and your party. You don’t understand transformation.”
And the tweets continued:
Don't get me wrong, I do believe racism is sensationalised in South Africa, but those are the consequences of oppressing people @helenzille
— K A T L E G O (@KatlegoMatebane) December 22, 2016
Nonkululeko Ngcobo tweeted “Wow Helen. You should just apologise and retract your statement. You are advocating racist behaviour.”
Zille then responded to more tweets saying: “Let us not trivialise the fight against racism by assuming that it is everywhere in every situation.”
The Cape Argus’ attempts to get comment from the premier’s office on Wednesday were unsuccessful. An email to her spokesman, Michael Mpofu, went unanswered.
A statement by The Bungalow said it had a clear policy of non-discrimination on the basis of gender, race, religion or sexuality. “On this occasion, this was the act of one employee, and an internal investigation is taking place. Procedures are being put in place to ensure that this does not happen again. No offence was intended and we are sorry that Mr Maqetuka had this experience.”
However, Maqetuka was still upset. “This incident made me realise that racism will not go away any time soon in Cape Town. But what is said is that we as ‘blacks’ can’t stop going to these affluent business places - we keep trying to prove a point to the world and it keeps getting thrown in our faces.”
The waiter, Mike Dzange, has been suspended from his job, where he's been working for eight years.
Dzange, a Zimbabwean national, has said that he regrets the controversial incident. "I'd like to apologise deep from my heart for the trouble I have caused; it happened without intention of hurting anybody." [Read more here]
Zille tweeted:
So do the social justice warriors feel good when a black working class person loses a job to satisfy middle class outrage? #JustAsking.
— Helen Zille (@helenzille) December 21, 2016
- Additional reporting by the Daily Voice