Cape Town – The DA intends to lodge a complaint against UCT lecturer Lwazi Lushaba with the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) following his ’’racist and offensive’’ comments regarding Adolf Hitler.
UCT has also launched a probe into comments by Lushaba, who allegedly said in a pre-recorded lecture shared online with first-year political science students: “Hitler committed no crime. All Hitler did was to do to white people what white people had normally reserved for black people.”
Natasha Mazzone, chief whip of the DA, said in a statement on Friday Lushaba has a long history of offensive and controversial actions.
’’The Holocaust was unequivocally a crime against humanity orchestrated by Hitler. The DA therefore strongly condemns the comments made by Lushaba,“ she said.
’’His comments were not only racist, offensive and vile, but also completely insensitive to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and the Jewish community as a whole.
’’South Africa’s Jewish community will today observe Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. In remembering the victims of the Holocaust, we must place a renewed sense of responsibility on those in positions of power and influence to defend the truth and to defend our democracy against any racist or anti-Semitic sentiments.’’
The German dictator orchestrated the deaths of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust between 1941 and 1945.
Lushaba was suspended by Wits in 2015 for “participating in activities which were not conducive to free and fair elections and were intolerant to a democratic society”, Mazzone added.
’’In 2019, he allegedly took exception to one of the contender’s in UCT’s election of its Dean of Humanities being Tanzanian and not South African. In an interview with Power FM, Lushaba stated that ’reason and rationality are white.’.’’
The DA took that UCT will probe Lushaba’s comments and urged Vice-Chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng to place him on suspension pending the investigation.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said the institution “notes with grave concern” the comments allegedly made by a staff member during an online class.
“We are verifying all the facts. In the meantime, the university is clear that all brutalities of genocide constitute both formal crimes against humanity and ongoing sources of pain. We distance ourselves very strongly from any other view.”
IOL