Mashaba dismisses racism claims made by IRR's Hermann Pretorius

Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba has dismissed claims that he initiated a “race-based attack” against DA Councillor Tim Trulock for his alleged views on the EFF and black people.

This after a widely circulating WhatsApp message posted by the Institute of Race Relations' (IRR) Hermann Pretorius of Mashaba complaining about Trulock's alleged dislike for black people has been doing the rounds.

In the message, Mashaba wrote: “Please allow me to caution people like Tim Trullock (sic) to stop his open hatred for black people because it will continue making it difficult for us as a party to attract them to our party, especially the poor ones. His own comments and behaviour, as far as I am concerned, are directly contributing to this lack of trust by the black voters. I am tired of such comments he just made immediately after our teams worked so hard to retain the 3 the Wards, under extreme difficult circumstances.

“His hatred is not just EFF, but black people in general, hence he once made [a] statement in Caucus that our party should focus our efforts on tax-paying residents. Tim, please note that our people living and not paying taxes are a results of many years of oppression prior 1994, worsened by ANC failure after 1994.”

Mashaba dismissed the furore around the leaked message, saying it "demonstrated his hatred for racists".

He also urged Pretorius to post another message he sent to the caucus, which apparently added more context to the situation.

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