Police stopped students from handing out garlic, beetroot and pamphlets to foreign tourists at OR Tambo International Airport outside Johannesburg on Wednesday, police said.
National police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said three students were escorted to the airport’s community service centre after the police discovered they had no permission from the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa).
The three did not know they needed permission to stage such an action at the airport and were released with no charges brought against them.
”We questioned them, warned them and let them go,” Naidoo said.
The students, wearing bandages, neck supports and carrying crutches, wanted foreigners to note ”the harsh realities of South Africa”, said campaign initiator Quentin Campbell in a statement.
”The pamphlet was designed to point out to tourists the perils of discrimination, crime and HIV in South Africa, with reference to everything that is being blamed on the ‘wrongs of the past’.”
It also referred to former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s remark that a shower could prevent Aids and Health Minister Manto Tshabala-Msimang’s view of garlic and beetroot as HIV/Aids remedies, Campbell said.
Ten students had taken part but only three were spotted by the police, he said.
”It was to give the facts that South Africa is not as safe a place as they think.”
Reactions varied with some tourists refusing to take the pamphlet while others read it.
”Some laughed and enjoyed the thing; some were shocked.”
He said Afrikaners were being increasingly marginalised.
”These young Afrikaners are turning to foreign tourists because they are being treated as foreigners in their own country. It’s a pity that we have no choice but to put our case to foreigners.”
Acsa spokesperson Solomon Makgale said the airport was a designated key point under the national Key Points Act.
”If people are to protest there, they obviously need to get approval from ACSA and the police.”
Last month Campbell, a Pretoria student, was one of 11 white students who painted their faces black in a bid to be classified as Africans. – Sapa