The petition by international protest site change.org asks for support to stop Isidingo from featuring racism because “it fuels hatred from the past”.
Isidingo viewers were last week shown a racially charged scene, where Sechaba Moloi-Matabane (played by Motlatsi Mafatshe) was physically attacked by two white male farmers. The scene has since evoked an array of emotions amongst South Africans of which many are using social media to . “I don’t see other baboons here” is uttered by one of the white male characters in the scene.is being interpreted as racist against white people.
The online petitions started by Renee Swartz of Mpumalanga states:
“It is sickening. If we(whites) are not used as a “racism tool” in campaigning for votes, we are abused in the “blame game” If zuma cant deliver and behave like a president of a country it is either Jan van Riebeeck’s fault, the whites fault or apartheid’s fault. We see hate speech, threats to murder and kill us all, even telling us to leave the country. So everyday we see this all over SM and now on TV?….that was a subtle suggestion that that we do that or did that? it is truly dangerous as it deepens the hate planted in the hearts of young black people already. A subtle move as I say, it penetrates the soul and deceitful brainwashing is the aim. Now as a white woman, I can tell you this much; I have lived long enough to tell you people straight and if I could, in the face, in Apartheid years not ALL whites ran to and fro killing left right and centre….lies, lies and more lies, because Apartheid has become a scapegoat. You know what we see? We see the truth and reality: Over 70,000 whites have been murdered since 1994, we are barred from the Job market through more than a 100 Black Empowerment Laws. I can go on, but it will take pages upon pages. Let me just end with this: ApartHEID (separate development was meant on the Black Homelands (which didn’t happen) died 22 years ago and ApartHATE started. As it is so clearly displayed in the 3/8/2016 episode of Isidingo. It is this kind of manipulation that, in the end, can bring no good but only a harvest of evil.”
Meanwhile minority rights grouping AfriForum expressed its concern over the public reaction that followed after the scene was aired. AfriForum says “various commentators described the particular Isidingo episode as a reflection of the reality and spread the episode in an attempt to incite anti-white racism. Isidingo is also praised on social media for the political standpoint this programme takes against white people”.
According to Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum, the story on Isidingo does not reflect the reality among white people, Afrikaners or farmers. In this particular episode, an innocent black man is assaulted by two white men and buried alive after they mocked him with baboon sounds.
“We acknowledge the right of the producers of Isidingo to artistic freedom and cannot dictate what must be aired in the programme. We are however concerned over the public reaction that followed after this episode from within certain ranks,” says Roets. The producers of Isidingo ought to take a strong public standpoint against all forms of racism.
Roets says that AfriForum will continue to consistently reject all forms of racism.