Johannesburg - “They (Jews) are devils, they are good for nothing… they (Jews), like Adam Habib, are uncircumcised at heart,” ranted ousted Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) president Mcebo Dlamini in an interview with PowerFM on Tuesday night.
In defence of these remarks, he said the Jewish community had misconstrued his “I love Hitler” comments and taken them out of context. “After this, I thought to myself, I will show you exactly who you are… they (Jews) are hypocrites!”
Defending his “I love Hitler” comments, Dlamini reiterated that he was comparing Nazi Germany to apartheid Israel. “When a black student says that ‘white people hate Adolf Hitler, but they are doing exactly what he did’, I say that I love Adolf Hitler,” he said.
National director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) Wendy Kahn told The Star on Thursday morning that Dlamini’s comments were nothing short of hate speech.
She said they were “nothing more than a resurfacing of old-style European anti-Semitism”, and were reminiscent of medieval anti-Jewish hatred, in which Jews were dehumanised and demonised. “We are appalled that a young South African would choose to utilise this bigoted speech.”
Kahn said the SAJBD had lodged a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission in April against Dlamini’s initial comments, and would take further action against his latest comments.
Shocked by Dlamini’s statements, a caller addressed Dlamini, stating that he needed “a day of history lesson”.
“During 1936 at the Berlin Olympics, when Jesse Owens won a gold medal, Adolf Hitler refused to applaud him. I think if Adolf Hitler was alive now he (would have) actually squashed Mcebo’s head.”
Dlamini was interviewed after a hearing to review his suspension as SRC president.
He said he was forced to go to court to get a review date as the university was stalling for time. “There is a rule in the SRC constitution that if one is out of office for 90 days, they are automatically removed from the SRC.”
Wits communications manager Shirona Patel said the review was connected with Dlamini’s charges of misconduct and not related to the Hitler comments. “We are waiting for a decision from the review committee chair."
