/ 22 April 2008

Minister: SA does not need the likes of Bullard

South Africa does not need the likes of sacked Sunday Times columnist David Bullard, Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan said on Tuesday.

”He is the type of person South Africa does not need within its borders,” he told a media briefing at Parliament.

South Africa had its own racist ”headaches” without having to import them from England or elsewhere.

Jordan said he had been alarmed at what Bullard had been writing in his column and what he had been getting away with. People were no longer willing to tolerate such calculated insults.

He likened it to ”coming into someone’s living room and defecating on their carpet”.

He was surprised it had taken Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya so long to fire the columnist, Jordan said.

Regarding the recent spate of racist incidents around the country, he said no one was born racist. It was the result of ongoing indoctrination by racist elements in society.

People had to be ”deprogrammed”, and socialisation that taught people to be racist had to be undone by continuously emphasising equality, dignity and human rights, Jordan said. — Sapa