A Gordon’s Bay man has been accused of racism after he posted on Facebook that they will have the beach to themselves again in two weeks’ time.
On Thursday, Gert Kotzee posted pictures of himself and his son, of people in the water and on the sand, and one selfie including a black couple sitting on a bench behind him.
He captioned the picture gallery: “In just 2 weeks we will have the beach to ourselves again…”
In response, branch chairperson of Ward 86 Xolani Diniso and a handful of ANC members went to the beach on Saturday where they played loud music and danced.
Kotzee then responded on Facebook, claiming his first post was talking about locals in general: “Please note that this action is just to push their [racist] agenda against white people and that they interpret what I said wrongly to make me look bad.
“Ourselves [mean the local people] and not [white] as stated in the message.”
Diniso tells the Daily Voice: “He insinuated that the beach belongs to the locals and we know the majority of locals living near the beach are white people.
“We wanted to showcase that the beaches are for everyone.
“Many white people came to us and told us they distanced themselves from the statement made by Kotzee.
“There are people who are white and advocating for the Rainbow Nation, we’ve noted that there were people who defended him and said what he said was not racist.”
ANC provincial spokesperson Muhammad Khalid Sayed says Kotzee’s post was racist and that they fully support Diniso’s initiative.
Sayed adds: “The reason we went to the beach was to indicate not only to Gert but to each and every white racist in the province that our beaches and public spaces are for everybody.”
He added racists have been getting away with such remarks “because this province has become a comfortable space for people like him to spew the racism they want to because there are no consequences”.
“We will continue coming to the beach and in two weeks there will be more people.”
Sayed says legal action against Kotzee is not out of the question: “Councillor Diniso is consulting with lawyers to see which legal route we will take.
“We are happy that he has since removed the post but we want a public apology or else we are going to lay a formal complaint.”
The Daily Voice reached out to Kotzee via Facebook but he did not respond.