Cape Town - The V&A Waterfront, one of Cape Town's most iconic tourist attractions, on Monday said it was investigating allegations of racism which involved a black Democratic Alliance (DA) MP, a white family and a punch in the face.
After visiting the V&A Waterfront, DA MP Phumzile van Damme tweeted that she had experienced racism and punched one of the offenders in the face in self-defence.
"The family. This lady was filming me the entire time, so I tried to take photos & that little s**t in the black t-shirt came to my face & came within my face & [said] “voetsek you black” & threw [my phone] on the ground. He was threatening violence so in self-defense I punched him in the head," Van Damme tweeted.
After her confrontation with the family, Van Damme tweeted a video of her conversation with the security manager whom she said had not acted on her complaint.
"AND, @VandAWaterfront the right way to deal with this would’ve been to take my details & the family’s details & apologized to me for what I’d experienced. Your 'Manager' did neither. He treated me like the rubbish & told me to go, so I said 'fine, I’ll have to expose you'," she tweeted.
V&A Waterfront spokesman Donald Kau said they had contacted Van Damme after learning of the incident and have launched an investigation into the validity of her claims.
"We have subsequently gotten in touch with her to find out what transpired. It involved multiple parties so we are also speaking to our security manager to get his report. We will also look at video footage from the precinct," said Kau.
"Any incident of racism would be something that would be quite worrying for us. Any incident of violence would lead to anyone being ejected from the premises and any incident of racism would see the perpetrator banned."