By Karyn Maughan and Craig McKune
A new study has revealed that Brandon Huntley, who has been granted asylum in Canada after claiming to have been attacked by blacks several times, is the new black. Or more precisely, the former Capetonian is the descendant of one Francina van der Kaap, a woman "of colour", and more than half of his relatives are similarly coloured - in the verbal sense.
This is according to social historian Patric Tariq Mellet who says he himself shares Huntley's colourful lineage.
"We are in fact a family with a proud tradition of being mixed. We are a Creole family."
Further, said Mellet, Huntley's cousin - and Mellet's half-sister's son - lives in common-law partnership with an African woman in Khayelitsha, and Huntley's uncle married across the colour line, as did his grandparent's siblings.
Writing on the Cape-Slavery- Heritage blog this week, Mellet said his maternal grandparents, William Huntley and Mary-Anne Haddon-Huntley, were Brandon's great-grandparents.
"I've verified this through death notices and through the Cape Town archives," he said.
"Over 50 percent of Brandon's relatives are people of colour in Cape Town and don't share his attitudes (on race)."
According to Mellet: "Brandon's great-great-grandmother, Francina, was a woman of colour, married to ... William Haddon, one of the first Englishmen to settle in the Xalanga district of the Transkei in the mid-'0s."
Meanwhile, Melanie Crete- Huntley wants a divorce from her "racist" crime refugee husband - and then she wants to visit South Africa.
Speaking to Independent Newspapers yesterday, an emotional Crete-Huntley said she had been "overwhelmed" by the dozens of Facebook messages she received from South Africans urging her not to believe her estranged husband's claims about their country.
"People have been inviting me to visit and promising me that I would love South Africa and that no harm would come to me.
"The amazing kindness they have shown to me has really made me change my mind about South Africa.
"I am really sorry I believed all the racist stuff Brandon said about you guys," she said.
Crete-Huntley, who strongly suspects Huntley "suckered" her into marrying him to secure permanent residence in Canada, said she had planned to go to a lawyer yesterday.
"I want a divorce. It's enough now," she said.
She is also determined to get a full transcript of her husband's evidence to the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, which awarded him refugee status on the basis that he faced violent persecution from black South Africans.
Huntley told the board he had left Crete-Huntley because she was "not a nice woman" - a claim she said is simply not true.
In his evidence, Huntley also claimed he had been violently attacked by black men on numerous occasions but never reported the attacks because he did not trust the police.
He also said his family in South Africa had to hire security guards if they wanted to drive around at night.
"My husband told me that, as a woman, I would have to run red lights when I was driving to avoid being hijacked," Crete-Huntley said.
Now, she says, she wonders if her husband's claims were "blown out of proportion".
"Brandon said bad things about me but I am just one person ... South Africa is 40 million people ... who have been damaged by his racist remarks. I'm really sorry about that."
Crete-Huntley said she hoped she would be able to visit South Africa in the near future.
"If I ever manage to raise the money, I would definitely visit," she said.
She pauses. "I think rugby's a really good sport.
"I even bought an extra channel so I could watch it."