If the ANC Youth League had its way, racists would be thrown in jail where they would spend 10 years reflecting on their wicked ways.
The ANCYL yesterday said the increased number of racist outbursts in South Africa signalled a resurgence of “racial arrogance that proclaimed white supremacy”.
This comes after a Sandton man, Ben Sasonof, posted derogatory remarks on Facebook at the weekend about black Durban beach-goers, saying they smelled like “the inside of Zuma’s @ssh***”.
Later, a larney Clifton restaurant racially profiled two black patrons.
Earlier this year, Durban estate agent Penny Sparrow and Capetonian Matthew Theunissen were called out over their racist remarks also made on social media.
Theunissen ranted about racial quotas in sports, while Sparrow called black beach-goers in Durban “monkeys”.
Shortly after this, another Durban estate agent, Vicky Momberg, was caught on camera screaming racist comments at black cops.
The ANCYL in eThekwini Region on Monday laid a charge of crimen injuria against Sasonof.
ANCYL spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize said these racist incidences can no longer be classified as “pockets of incidents”, but they show a deeper underlying racial hatred that continued to exist in South African society.
Mkhize said black people remained poor as a result of centuries-long dispossession while the majority of white racists believed their wealth continued to make them a superior race.
“The ANC Youth League holds a view that racist arrogance is as a result of exercising power that is backed by historically accumulated privilege,” Mkhize said.
“This platform exists only for white people and against black people in the context of the centuries of material and social dispossession.”
Mkhize said the ANC-led government should move faster with land expropriation and economic transformation because they believed that was what sustained white supremacy.
He added: “We should criminalise racism with a minimum jail sentence of 10 years. There must be harsh consequences for racism, the time for picketing and marches against racism is over; we must jail racists and change the ownership structure of the economy.”