CARMEL RICKARD: It’s about intention
A case that had to decide the vital difference between ‘racial descriptors’ and ‘racist terms’ had to go all the way to the labour appeal court
As sensitivity to racial slurs grows in SA, the labour appeal court has been dealing with a case that asks an unusual question: when is it objectionable — and a dismissible offence — to refer to someone by their colour, and when is it simply a way to identify them? The question arose in the case of Meyer Bester, a senior training officer with Rustenburg Platinum Mine, who had a parking problem at work. Bester found it difficult to park in his allocated spot because the mine’s chief safety officer, Ben Sedumedi, had made the place next to Bester’s available to another colleague as a favour. Both men drove large 4x4s, and it was hard for Bester to get his vehicle in and out of the parking bay.He tried repeatedly to raise the matter with Sedumedi, and to ask whether the additional vehicle could be parked in one of the other available bays, but Sedumedi ignored him. Finally, Bester burst into a meeting Sedumedi was having with several other colleagues and said that Sedumedi should "verw...
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