Cape Town – Members of the EFF in the Western Cape were under close watch by Cape metro police officers as the red berets gathered outside Hank’s Olde Irish Pub on Tuesday picketing against racism.
The Cape Town pub finds itself in a race storm following an alleged racist incident that took place last Thursday when 25-year-old Thabiso Danca, a black patron, was barred from entering the pub and told he needed to be accompanied by a white patron as black people apparently caused trouble.
The EFF in the Western Cape said it had written to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) regarding the racist incident calling on it to investigate.
“This pub has told black customers that they will not be allowed through the doors unaccompanied by a white person. Racism is violence and must be dealt with decisively,” said the EFF
“This racism reveals the psychosis of many white racists who are still locked in a racist paradigm of white exclusivity and the old days of apartheid nostalgia" EFF said.
The EFF also said that the Western Cape has become the last bastion and safe haven for hardcore racists who still think that they are superior to blacks because of the lighter pigmentation of their skin.
"It also unveils the mentality of the co-owner/s of the Hank’s Olde Irish Pub through whose racist utterances we get the sense that the Pub sees itself as a whites only pub where blacks are not welcomed and when they enter they are characterized as thieves and trouble makers," EFF said.
Earlier on Tuesday, government applauded Christopher Logan for coming to the defence of Danca and confronting racism head on.
In a statement, government spokesperson and GCIS director-general, Phumla Williams, said: “As a country, we are working hard to deal with crucial challenges such as the huge inequality gap, a legacy of the past, which is also a contributing factor to racism.
“The eradication of racism can only happen on a human to human level, and when we recognise and accept that we have more in common that unites us than which divides us. Government also compliments Danca’s friend, Christopher Logan, who came to the defence of his friend,” Williams said.
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