The Democratic Alliance has dragged Beaufort West’s controversial Mayor to the Human Rights Commission for allegedly calling them “ dom ape”.
Yesterday the DA’s Sharna Fernandez filed two complaints against Mayor Truman Prince, who also allegedly racially abused a disabled person.
In the first incident, Fernandez says Prince verbally abused a wheelchair-bound resident who questioned why the mayor had turned a community meeting into a political rally earlier this year.
Fernandez says Prince told the man that he “still voted for white people even while stuck in a wheelchair”.
“(The resident) took offence and laid a charge at the police station but nothing was done to this day,” she explains.
“In the second incident on June 4, the DA held an activity and afterwards held a braai. Truman drove past the group who were dancing, he stopped and on his loud hailer said: ‘ Ai jinne, kyk hoe dance die dom ape’.
“He is driving a race card, I do not think it is appropriate for a sitting mayor to act as such, people are being ridiculed and enough is enough.”
But Prince denies the allegations and says Fernandez is “obsessed” with him.
“I cannot be racist, my family tree is a conglomerate of almost all the races, I have Xhosa, Jewish and even Afrikaans-speaking people in my family. When Mandela speaks of the Rainbow Nation, it describes me,” he says.
“These accusations are a blatant lie. Sharna is obsessed and made this a personal fight.”