SOUTH-AFRICA – For a country dubbed the “Rainbow Nation” for its ability to move beyond its apartheid past, South Africa’s social media these days looks like a racial battleground.
Almost every other week a new racism row erupts. I see it on my Twitter feed, read about it in bold headlines in the morning papers, and hear it on talk radio while driving my car. This week the focus is on a white high court judge. In a Facebook conversation between Judge Mabel Jansen and activist Gillian Schutte last year, the judge apparently suggested that black South Africans condone rape writing that gang rapes of a “baby, daughter and mother” are viewed as a “pleasurable past time.” The discussion was made public this week, sparking heated responses on social media, becoming a trending topic in South Africa on Twitter and the dominant conversation in the country. In a post on Twitter, Jansen wrote: “What I stated confidentially to somebody in a position to help has been taken completely out of context and referred to specific court cases.”(CNN.COM)…[+]
