Democratic Alliance Revokes Penny Sparrow’s Membership

This week racist commentary by a white South African estate
agent, Penny Sparrow, went viral. Within a few days, Sparrow – who referred to
Durban’s black beach-goers as monkeys on Facebook – had been publicly shamed.
To date, a charge of crimen injuria has been laid against her and a complaint
about her statements lodged with the Human Rights Commission. Since finding her
phone number angry South Africans have sent Sparrow a deluge of voice and text
messages and her social media accounts have been inundated with monkey
emoticons. To top it all off, she’s lost her job and is said to be in hiding.

Sparrow clearly hit a nerve but her rant was hardly
creative. It was crude and unimaginative, but South Africans – across the
racial spectrum – have responded en masse because we recognise Sparrow. To
white South Africans she is the embarrassing aunt who refuses to join the 21st
century. To black South Africans she is the abrasive woman in the supermarket
whose superiority complex makes her a compulsive queue jumper. We all know her
kind well.

Because of this, there haven’t been many white South
Africans jumping to Sparrow’s defence. It has been relatively easy for South
Africans of all races to agree that the woman is obnoxious. Sparrow is an
important part of South Africa’s story not because she is divisive but rather
that she is so easily recognisable. Sparrow matters not because she insulted
black people but because she so obviously misses apartheid.