President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to rid “society of the divisions and the hurts of our past” following an attack on two black boys at a ‘whites only’ swimming pool at a resort in the Free State.
In a video circulating on social media, the two boys were attacked while in a ‘whites only’ swimming pool at a resort on Christmas by a the group of adult white men.
In the video one of the men has got his hand around the neck of the boy while others end up jumping in the water with the other victim amid screams that they might be trying to drown him.
“Our Constitution means exactly what it says when it declares that South Africa – and that means all of South Africa – belongs to all who live in it.
“As black and white South Africans, we should be united in condemning all manifestations of racism and attempts to explain or defend such crimes. Racism is not a problem to be fought by black South Africans only.
“We must also be united in ridding our society of the violence we see in the videos of the incident at the Free State resort, whether such violence comes with racism or not.
“It is deplorable that adults dealing with teenagers resort to violence with such disturbing ease, hurting people physically and offending provisions in our Bill of Rights around security of the person, including the right to dignity and being free of violence,” he added.
The Free State police said they are investigating a case of common assault and the docket will be taken to court for a decision and Ramaphosa said he welcomed the investigation into the incident.
“Under the rule of law, we must let investigations take their course but under the rule of law we can and must also declare that racism has no place in our society and racists have no place to hide.
“We must defend our continuing national mission of ridding our society of the divisions and the hurts of our past.”
