While European diplomats and mainstream journalists enthuse about South Africa as a “rainbow nation”, not a day goes by without some ethnic or racial incident making headlines and fuelling tensions even further. In the latest incident, a young Indian woman, Alochna Moodley, 26, was expelled from a scheduled flight and lost her job because she allegedly referred to two fellow passengers as “kaffirs” in a private Whatsapp message to her fiancée.
One of the passengers, 44-year old Lutheran pastor Solomuzi Mabuza, peered at her phone and saw her Whatsapp message in which she apparently stated: “I’m sitting in between two kaffirs; one is smelling of alcohol, the other one is sniffing and the captain of this flight is also a kaffir.”
In a recent court case, a white woman, Vicki Momberg, was sentenced to three years imprisonment for referring to a black man as a “kaffir”, one year of which was suspended for a futher three years. Momberg was refused leave to appeal and is still serving her prison sentence.
In an interview with FreeWestMedia, Pastor Solumuzi Mabuza, admitted that he was an adherent to the anti-white ideology known as “black consciousness”, which requires all people of colour to unite in “the struggle” against Europeans. Mabuza was not so much shocked by the word but by the Indian woman’s departure from anti-white solidarity. He said: “The shock was to see a young woman who in the broader definition of black consciousness which I ascribe to, is amongst with me, in the struggle against racism, the struggle against apartheid.”
During his confrontation with Miss Moodley in the plane, which had not yet departed, Mabuza asked her: “How can you be a racist at such a young age?” But she in turned accused Mabuza of invading her privacy. She also claimed to have apologised to Mabuza and his fellow passenger, Sibusiso Magubane, but Mabuza denied this.
“She was arrogant when I tried to reprimand her,” said Mabuza. “She asked me: ‘Where do you get the right to read my private conversation?'”
A passenger on the plane, Nadine Watkins, tweeted about the incident, agreeing that Miss Moodley should be removed.
Turning back to O.R Tambo after an unsavory passenger called the captain the k-word. Our flight might be 10 minutes late, but as South Africans we can’t allow this type of behaviour to continue. #stopracism @kulula pic.twitter.com/sQarXNhAai
— Nadine Watkins (@nadine_watkins1) June 15, 2018
In a subsequent statement to the Sowetan newspaper, Miss Moodley admitted to using the word “kaffir” but ascribed it to her “frustration” at the plane being late and not taking off at the appropriate time, with the whole plane being manned by black personnel as South Africa’s affirmative-action laws require.
“It was a mistake on my side, I am not going to deny that I said those things,” she said.
“Yes, it’s wrong for me to make those racial remarks but it was my SMS, so why was he (Mabuza) looking at my phone? He invaded my privacy and I feel like this thing was blown out of proportion,” she said.
Mabuza challenged her to “lay charges against him” for invading her privacy but at the sime time told her: “I would also like to lay charges against you because what you are doing is illegal in this country. Racism is illegal.
While the plane was still being prepared for departure, Mabuza asked an air hostess: “Do you have a policy against racism? The reasion is that I have just read a text from this young lady saying that she is sitting between two kaffirs and the pilot is also a kaffir. I speak in isiZulu.”
When the captain on the flight, Menzi Mvelase, heard that he had also been referred to as a “kaffir”, he returned to the airport and, as Mabuza put it, “off-loaded this unsavoury passsenger”.
A spokesman for the airline, William Smook of Kulula, confirmed the cabin crew were alerted to the incident.
“The aircraft, which hadn’t taken off, returned to the loading ramp and the ramp controller escorted the passenger from the plane. kulula.com’s stance is simply that it doesn’t tolerate discrimination or abusive conduct.”
Smook said the flight was on time but then delayed by 15 minutes because of Moodley’s removal.
According to him, neither the pilot nor Kulula wanted to press charges against Miss Moodley, who could face a prison sentence similar to the one meted out to Vicky Momberg.
Following the media frenzy over the incident during which her photograph (above) was published in most major newspapers in South Africa, as well as on TV, Miss Moodley was fired from her job at SMC Pneumatics South Africa. The CEO of the company, Kevin O’Carroll, said: “At SMC we do not tolerate any form of racism. With regards to the recent events, the employee no longer works for SMC South Africa.”
