By Lamese Abrahams
A recent poll which appeared in the discussion forum on the Gumtree website asking users whether Saffas (South Africans) should be gassed, has caused outrage about the way South Africans are treated here in the UK, as well as why such an appalling and demeaning poll ever came to exist.
The Gumtree was founded six years ago and has proved to be a massive hit with South Africans coming over to the UK, as it is a website that helps people settle in by providing information about accommodation, employment and social opportunities.
This website, which is mainly used by antipodeans, recently launched a discussion forum section, intended as a platform where people can ask for assistance or get help from others, has spawned a mouthpiece for vitriolic anti-South African sentiment of the worst kind.
In a statement received from the Gumtree, their official spokesperson revealed that, “As soon as this thread was brought to our attention, we removed it immediately as it went against the rules we have for the forums.” The thread was started on the night of Saturday 25 March and removed during the late afternoon of Monday 27 March, so while Gumtree made an effort to remove the thread this was done almost 48 hours after it first appeared.
The fact of the matter is that the poll created a platform for users with names such as ‘Kill The Boers’ and ‘Saffa C*nts’ to incite hate speech. Although we have been informed that the parties involved have been banned from the forums, we believe that a site as popular as the Gumtree should not rely on users to report abuse but attempt to be more vigilant in their monitoring of content on their forums.
To poke fun at South Africa’s past and make uninformed comments, as the users in the thread did with posts such as “only kill Afrikaans speaking Saffas”, and “gassing is too good for that racist filth”, is absolutely unacceptable.
What the hell is going on?
Another post in the thread says, “It does not matter what language they (South Africans) speak, it’s the way they act that identifies them.” Giving the poster more time than they deserve - what does this mean? Are we being marked by the way we act, and if so, in what way are our actions inciting such a degree of hatred?
Is this the reason why South African John Stanford was beaten up recently outside a nightclub in Clapham by two thugs hurling xenophobic remarks while they punched him into semi-consciousness? Or maybe it’s the reason why Grant Nock lost an eye last year after being attacked by a group of youths. Did the Springbok jersey he was donning after watching a rugby match at The Walkabout make him a sitting duck?
Grant and two other men who were with him were attacked with bricks, broken bottles and told they should leave the country “or carry the consequences.” A mere six weeks after Nock’s attack, 28-year-old Stanton Ashton, from Durban had a broken beer glass smashed into his right eye at a wine bar in London Bridge.
Following the attack, for which Ashton can think of no possible provocation, he told a news agency that he doesn’t think that leaving Durban for London was worth it. He went on to say that there are a lot of things that young people do not realise and that the quality of life in South Africa is much better than here in London where people live on top of each other.
South Africans of course come to London for many different reasons but none come here expecting to be faced with abhorrence.
A South African on a working holiday visa who wants to be known only as Grant, says that London was not what he expected and sometimes wonders why he bothered to come over at all.
“I thought people would be more open-minded but I often find that it is not the case. We South Africans that speak Afrikaans are still judged because of the Apartheid that took place,” he said. “I am not racist but many people still perceive Afrikaans speaking white South Africans as being racist and I think it’s unfair to be judged on what the previous generation did.
“The last thing I wanted to be faced with when I came overseas were demons from South Africa’s past,” he explained.
Mark, who has been in the UK for three years, revealed that he was left traumatised when he just arrived in London. “When I was working for a charity organisation, an Englishman came up to me and shouted that South Africans are stealing all of their jobs”, he said.
Charles on the other hand, who is classed as coloured in South Africa, says that the last thing he expected here in London was racism from fellow South Africans.
“I was shocked that even though I was so far away from home, I had to experience racism from a fellow South African,” he explained. “To be honest I was expecting some anger from British people because you always hear stories but I was disgusted when it came from someone from my homeland.”
The poll found in the forums of the Gumtree has raised two important issues for South Africans here in the UK to consider.
Firstly, we will not tolerate arbitrarily being judged for the sins of the past and just as importantly, if we are inciting hatred by our general conduct we need to look at ourselves to see if this accusation is true.
How do you feel about the recent forum on the Gumtree? Have you ever been the victim of hate speech in the UK? Email us at editor@southafrican.co.uk
