Racial Tweet After Beach Litter Unleashes Storm

Comments by some white people on social media about the state of KZN beaches over the festive season have unleashed a storm on Twitter, with some people saying this attitude among whites is prevalent and that’s why black people vote EFF.

The first post, by a woman named Penny Sparrow, who identified herself as a real estate agent for Jawitz, wrote, “from now on I. Shall address the blacks of South Africa as monkeys as I see the cute little monkeys do the same pick drop and litter”.

Jawitz quickly said in a news report that Sparrow had worked for them until November in Scottburgh but no longer did, and it distanced itself from her comments.

Another tweet, by Justin van Vuuren, talked about “animals” and said “Go back to where you came from and take your 13 kids with you!” Van Vuuren later apologised, but the damage had been done. Sparrow also released an apology saying “If you read it (the tweet) properly you would see I am not Racial. in fact I help underprivileged people of all races.”

By Monday #JustinVanVuuren was trending more than #PennySparrow, with many tweets saying they didn’t accept his apology and his and Sparrow’s attitude was representative of many whites.

Tweeted GK @GK_SA_ “Every1 jumping on the hate of ppl train thx 2 #JustinVanVuuren & #PennySparrow ! 2 lost ppl that dnt represent any1 but their own naivety!” Tweeted @RoyBlumenthal: “There is ONE good thing about this #PennySparrow madness… It gets the race conversation in the open.”

The two racist tweets were written over the weekend, when much of South Africa was celebrating, as is the tradition, on the beaches. Many flocked to beaches like Durban and Margate in large numbers. In her post on SAPeople, Pip Davis commented on a racist tweet by a man named Louis.

“Our white privilege needs to be sharply checked,” Davis wrote. “Numbers and volumes coming to the beach, for the vast majority of people, is a rare family outing.”

“It is not the fault of the masses that councils grossly underplan for the day. It is not the fault of the masses that there are inadequate loos, bins, support or crowd control or facilities of any kind.”

“All this aside, however, what wrecked it for me was not the mess, not the chaos, not the vandalism (sadly) in some coastal towns, but the attitude of people like Louis and racist replies on his post.”