Andrew Barnes makes 'epitome' of a racial mess with Motshekga quip

07 January 2016 - 13:35 By S’duduzo Dludla
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eNews anchor Andrew Barnes. File photo
eNews anchor Andrew Barnes. File photo

This year is barely a week old and already the social media revolution has called out several individuals for blatant and subtle racism.

On Wednesday eNCA’ s senior news anchor Andrew Barnes made a mockery of Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga’s pronunciation of the word “epitome”.

Motshekga had mispronounced “epitome" during her speech of the matric results for 2015.

"Maybe someone should have a word with the basic education minister on how to pronounce the word epitome," Barnes said on live television.

South Africans hastily let their outrage heard on social media, with some pointing to the fact the television news anchor failed to pronounce Motshekga’s surname correctly.

One of the notable tweets came from Esethu Hasane, spokesperson for the department of sport and recreation saying:

"So it’s fine for eNCA anchors to pronounce African names/words however but they can mock Africans for not pronouncing English words properly.”

This comes after South Africa has been rocked by a spate of racist comments in the past recent days with realtor Penny Sparrow’s description of black people as “monkeys”,  Justin van Vuuren’s Facebook comment calling black people  “the scum of the nation” and economist Chris Hart tweeting: "More than 25 years after Apartheid ended, the victims are increasing along with a sense of entitlement and hatred towards minorities…"

Barnes later tweeted: “My heartfelt apologies for the hurtful comment I made about the Education Minister’s English today. You all expect more of me. I’m sorry.”

The news channel said: “eNCA is aware of Andrew Barnes’ comment. His quip was in poor taste and management will address this. We apologise unreservedly.”

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