Reverend busts 'racist' plane passenger over k-word SMS

The reverend Solumuzi Mabuza is the person who called out a Midrand woman for referring to a black flight captain and passengers using the k-word.

She was removed from the Kulula flight from Johannesburg's OR Tambo International to Durban's King Shaka Airport on Friday night after the incident.

The Sowetan newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Indian woman admitted to using the slur‚ blaming it on frustration. She was called out by Mabuza‚ who was seated next to her and saw her typing the k-word on her phone.

Mabuza said: “I told her that I saw what she sent to her man but she refused to delete it and I came to the conclusion that this child was taught this behaviour at home. I want her to be taught that in this country it is illegal to be racist."

The woman told Sowetan she had used the word out of frustration at a flight delay.

“Yes‚ it’s wrong for me to make those racial remarks but it was my SMS‚ so why was he (Mabuza) looking at my phone? He invaded my privacy and I feel like this thing was blown out of proportion‚” the Sowetan quoted her as saying.

TimesLIVE reported previously that Nadine Watkins had tweeted about an "unsavoury passenger" who called the captain the k-word. She said: "Our flight might be 10 minutes late‚ but as South Africans we can’t allow this type of behaviour to continue."

Kulula spokesperson William Smook confirmed that an incident had occurred‚ adding: "Kulula doesn’t tolerate any conduct that makes their staff feel uncomfortable. It’s just not the kind of world that we want to live in."