Soapie star stunned by racist posts

TONGUES WAGGING: The scene on local Afrikaans soapie 7de Laan that had people on Facebook commenting with racial slurs. Photo: Facebook

TONGUES WAGGING: The scene on local Afrikaans soapie 7de Laan that had people on Facebook commenting with racial slurs. Photo: Facebook

Published Mar 29, 2016

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ACTRESS Enhle Mbali Mlotshwa knew she would be bombarded with racial slurs when she took on her role on a local soapie, but she didn’t think it would come from people on set.

Mlotshwa, a businesswoman married to popular DJ Black Coffee, recently took on the role of Nandi in the Afrikaans soapie 7de Laan, in which her character becomes involved in an interracial relationship.

She shared her experience on Instagram on Sunday.

“In the past year I started shooting @real7delaan and I agreed to doing (it) because of the story behind my character. Interracial relationships. Working there was not easy and finding my footing was most difficult, but I took it on with utmost humility, since my character journey was the most important thing,” she wrote.

“Bernard and Nandi received some racist slurs from their on-screen debut this past week, (production expected it and so did I, and change was the point) but the crazy thing is racial slurs happened on set with people I thought were educated and open minded (sic).”

The slurs on social media took off when a picture of the characters, Nandi and Bernard, kissing was posted on the soapie’s Facebook page.

Kayleigh Grimbeek wrote: “The WHOLE ENTIRE BIBLE teaches us to NOT mix our seed. From Genesis right through Revelations. If you don’t see it you are NOT reading your Bible correctly…Did you know that while white people can donate blood to blacks, about 90% of blacks' blood will be rejected by a white person’s body… Wonder why…(sic)”

Ann Esterhuizen added: “Luckily there’s other channels to watch, I’m not a racist but people must know their place soapies give certain races sh**ty ideas.”

More than 100 people were angered by the post, but many tried to defend the storyline.

“I think Nandi is a pretty lady…whether she’s black or white. U don’t choose who u fall in love with. Whoever has a problem with this, just stop watching the program instead of torturing yourself (sic),” said Channel du Preez Pearson.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said although they were unaware of the incident, they were sternly against racism.

"We are a public broadcast services provider so we can’t be aligned with anything (that has) to do with racism,” he said.

 

Posted by 7de Laan (Amptelik) on  Tuesday, March 22, 2016

 

• The image that sparked racist comments and fierce debates, from those who thought the scene was "disgusting", to those hitting back at viewers opposed to the interracial romance, saying they made a "nice couple", while reminding everyone that "apartheid is long gone".

 

The Star

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