On Friday, Mr S reported that Oxford’s Rhodes Must Fall co-founder Ntokozo Qwabe had revelled in making a ‘white waitress’ cry at a restaurant in Cape Town. The incident occurred after Qwabe’s friend wrote a note to the waitress explaining they would only tip her when she ‘returned the land’.
Qwabe — who studies law at Oxford — has since refused to apologise, instead hitting out at the response by the ‘hysterical white media’. Happily others are feeling more compassionate. After news of the incident broke, Sihle Ngobese sought out the waitress and gave her a tip in protest of Qwabe’s behaviour:
https://twitter.com/SihleDLK/status/726124957655257089
Speaking to the South African site News24, Ngobese said that someone who ‘claims to speak to the downtrodden and disenfranchised’ should not ‘bully a working class young woman’. The kind gesture has since inspired a crowdfunder campaign — set up by Roman Cabanac — which aims to help compensate the waitress for the ordeal by providing her with a sizeable tip. This has so far raised over £1,400 for the woman:
https://twitter.com/Renegade_Report/status/726114557979164672
Alas not everyone is so pleased by the gesture. Although Qwabe is a co-founder of the Oxford Rhodes Must Fall movement, the original Rhodes Must Fall campaign in South Africa —- which saw the Cecil Rhodes statue fall in Cape Town — have now got involved. The campaign group — which claims it fights institutional racism — have used their official Twitter account to wade into the debate. They say that the crowdfunder shows ‘the white conservatives rallying behind the protection of their privilege’:
However, given that the original donor cannot be described as a ‘white conservative’, they ought to think again.
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