Tat for Unity Through Diversity amid 'racist' taunts

07 October 2015 - 13:39 By Staff reporter
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PATRIOTIC: Esethu Hasane got a tattoo of South Africa's coat of arms close to his heart.
PATRIOTIC: Esethu Hasane got a tattoo of South Africa's coat of arms close to his heart.
Image: Esethu Hasane via twitter

A tattoo of South Africa's national coat of arms has propelled a spokesperson for South Africa's Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula, into the limelight.

Esethu Hasane took to social media to explain his impulsive decision to get the tat on his chest - and to hit out at the Pretorians working at the tattoo parlour who challenged the government he works for.

While describing the pain of undergoing his first tattoo as feeling "like I was being circumcised all over again, now with a thousand blades", he also poured out his frustration at the attitudes he encountered at the Menlyn business.

"So I wanted a tattoo and as you've seen it would be the State's Coat of Arms which calls for Diverse People to Unite.... (I was) Insulted and flooded with racism while getting it," he tweeted.

Hasane said the tattoo parlour owner and others in the shop went on a rant about how the country was better off under apartheid.

"You have no shame. Why would you tattoo yourself with a sign of corruption," Hasane said he was told.

Some of the other comments directed at him that he recounted on his twitter feed His Thirstillency @EsethuHasane are:

"Your government is corrupt, we were better under apartheid than this" - I thought I'm having a nightmare.

"Your government is killing white people all over, it blames them for everything."

"Apartheid was better, you had more money, the education was better - Only thing I asked was 'better for who?'."

As he continued getting inked, Hasane said the "anger in me made the pain go away, couldn't believe this".

To his disappointment, and shock, others in the tattoo parlour did not speak out in defence of the government or the country, despite him asking for a divergent view.

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