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Online petition launched against Wits student president after “I love Hitler” comment

South Africans are reeling in bewilderment after comments made on social media, TV and radio by Wits University Student Representative Council (SRC) president, Mcebo Dlamini. Now an online petition has been launched calling for his removal from his position.

Dlamini apparently posted that all white people have “an element of Adolf Hilter” on Facebook this past weekend and subsequently followed it up with an “I love Adolf Hitler” comment in the post’s thread and went on to defend his comments, exhorting the Nazi leader’s leadership style.

Screenshot of Mcebo Dlamini's Facebook post
Screenshot of Mcebo Dlamini’s Facebook post

Rather than write off his Facebook post as a distasteful joke gone bad, Dlamini went on to justify and defend his comments in a live interview on local news broadcaster eNCA. In the interview, he claimed that it is impossible for a black person to be racist, because they are powerless against white people and have been subjected to torture and oppression for centuries at the hand of white people. Dlamini said that “all white people are the same, are racists and are full of hate”.

Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib hit back at Dlamini in a statement issued on behalf of the university saying that it has referred Dlamini for investigation to see whether disciplinary charges should be brought against him in this regard and apologised to all who were offended by the remarks.

This was all seemingly enough for Adam Macgregor who has launched a Change.org petition calling on Habib to remove Dlamini as Wits SRC president “out of a desire to preserve the good name of the university as well as ensure that those who represent the Wits student body are people who do so with common human decency at heart,” the petition states.

At the time of writing this article, 859 supporters have signed the petition, with 141 needed to reach its 1 000 target. Habib is yet to respond to the petition.

[Image – Screengrab eNCA]

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