Cape MEC red-faced over ‘racial’ poster

Knowledge sharing poster - Warda Meyer

Knowledge sharing poster - Warda Meyer

Published Mar 30, 2015

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Cape Town - The Western Cape MEC for transport and public works Donald Grant has ordered the removal of an internally distributed poster, described by the ANC as “racially fuelled”, that left his department red-faced and forced it to apologise.

The poster depicted a cartoon drawing of a white man, labelled “PM (project manager) and Mentor SME”, pumping his knowledge via a water pump from his head into the head of a black man wearing the label “New PM (project manager)”.

The poster was produced by the Department of Transport and Public Works and was removed a day after staff complained.

Now Grant’s denial of any knowledge of the poster before it was distributed and displayed has irked the ANC. The party exposed the poster during a sitting of the provincial legislature last week.

The poster, with the heading “Knowledge Management - Power is gained by sharing knowledge not hoarding it!”, made ANC members of the provincial legislature furious, saying it clearly illustrated the racial perception the provincial government had of black people.

Grant said the poster had been designed and put up in a number of areas in the office accommodation of the department.

“This happened without my knowledge or that of the senior management of the department,” he explained.

The poster had immediately been removed when brought to the attention of the department and a full apology given to the complainant.

“This (apology) was graciously accepted in writing. Steps have been put in place to ensure that such a thing cannot happen again,” Grant said.

But the ANC said Grant’s claim that neither he nor his senior staff had any knowledge of the poster was rubbish because “nothing happens within government without senior management knowing of it”.

“If indeed they did not know, then it effectively means the department is without any leadership. This reflects badly on Grant since he is the political head of the department,” ANC spokesman Kobus Grobler said.

The ANC questioned why the department waited until the poster was exposed and distributed widely throughout social media before acknowledging its existence.

“(Grant) should be apologising now to the broader society who was offended by this racially fuelled poster.”

The department’s head of communications, Al-Ameen Kafaar, confirmed that the poster had not gone through the required quality control processes and was distributed and displayed without the approval of the director of knowledge management.

“It was never the department’s intention to wilfully or deliberately portray anyone in a racist or stereotypical manner.”

The poster had been displayed on March 3 but was immediately removed after complaints from two staff members.

“The complaint came in the same afternoon and the instruction to remove the poster went out immediately afterwards. Removal started during the morning of March 4 and by March 5 all posters were replaced with a new one.”

Kafaar said the aim of the poster was to market the department’s Enterprise Content Management System – a digital record-keeping system.

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Cape Argus

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