'If it isn't racist, then I don't know what racism is' — Mashaba slams Ramaphosa's Maselspoort remarks

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has tongues wagging after suggesting President Cyril Ramaphosa's statement on an alleged racially-motivated attack at a swimming pool in the Free State last month was racist.

Ramaphosa condemned the attack on two teenagers at Maselspoort Resort. In a viral video, white men were seen ordering a black teenager out of the water, then hitting or shoving him back in, grabbing a child by the throat and pulling his hair as the fracas escalated. One man was also seen holding a youngster under the water.

Ramaphosa said what the boys went through was “cruel acts of racism and humiliation” at the hands of “old, white men”.

“It was such a shameful act to see old white men trying to throttle these young men and to drown them in a pool under water, the most shameful act to perpetrate against young boys like these and that is why they [the boys] are my guests,” Ramaphosa said.

“I thank you boys, stay strong and do not be afraid of white people — they no longer have power, their project of apartheid is over.”

Mashaba expressed outrage over Ramaphosa’s remarks and suggested they were racist.

He claimed Ramaphosa's statement fuelled racism.

“If this statement by the president is not racist, then I don't know what racism is.

“A blanket statement like this can only further fuel racism in our volatile country which the ANC has dismally failed to unite after many years of [the] National Party Apartheid system,” he said.

Mashaba's remarks drew mixed reactions online, with some saying there was nothing racist about Ramaphosa's statement.

Others agreed with Mashaba and said Ramaphosa “could have [given] a more mature reply”.

Here is a snapshot of what many had to say:

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