Johannesburg - Gauteng Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation
employee Velaphi Khumalo on Friday refused to comment following reports that he
had been officially suspended from his post.
News24 contacted Khumalo, who after questioning how they had
tracked him down, declined to comment.
"I will not comment on an internal issue. Contact the
department spokesperson if you want a comment," was all he was prepared to
say.
The department has confirmed that Khumalo was suspended
following a meeting on Friday.
Khumalo made headlines after he called for black South
Africans to do to white people what "Hitler did to the Jews" and
cleanse the country of white people.
"We must act as Hitler did to the Jews. I don’t believe
any more that the is a large number of not so racist whit people . I’m starting
to be sceptical even of those within our Movement the ANC. I will from today
unfriend all white people I have as friends from today u must be put under the
same blanket as any other racist white because secretly u all are a bunch of
racist fuck heads. as we have already seen [all sic]," he wrote on his
Facebook account.
At first, Khumalo was unapologetic about his post, but on
Thursday, in an e-mail to News24, he begged for forgiveness, adding that he
hoped the people of South Africa would find it in their hearts to forgive him.
"I would like to apologiese [sic] to the Gauteng
government for my emotional comments that I made on a public platform. I
further want to apologise to the ANC for the comments I made that do not
reflect the ideologies of a democratic society that are our ideals," he
wrote.
He admitted that his comments were offensive and
"uncomfortable".
"I have seen firsthand what racism and oppression of
any race can do to a country and would not want my son to grow up in such a
society," Khumalo said.
