Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has promised to take legal action against the Open Chats Podcast after a clip went viral showing its hosts making racist and offensive comments about South Africa’s coloured community.
@gaytonmck Hulle raak ons sleg gewoomd
♬ original sound – Gayton
In the viral clip, the podcasters claimed that coloured families engage in incest and called the community “crazy”. These shocking remarks quickly spread across social media, sparking outrage among South Africans. People from all walks of life — including political leaders, civil society groups, and ordinary citizens, have stood up to condemn the podcast and are calling for serious consequences.
Reacting to the video, McKenzie released a strong statement on his social media. He called the episode “blatant racism” and made it clear that legal action is coming.
“I want a report today of how we are going to deal with those people who said coloureds are crazy,” said McKenzie. “All steps are going to be taken; we’re going after them in their capacity legally.”
He didn’t stop there. McKenzie also pointed out the double standards in how racial issues are handled in the country. He said that if a coloured person had made such comments about another race, the story would have been front-page news.
“If coloured people made those remarks about any other race group, it would be front-page news. We must never allow people to become that comfortable with disrespecting us.”
His words echoed the feelings of many online. The clip has led to an outpouring of anger on social media, with many users demanding that the episode be taken down immediately and that those responsible face justice.
Following the public backlash, the Open Chats Podcast released a statement across their social media platforms. In the message, they apologised and admitted they were wrong.
“The intention was never to cause harm or disrespect the coloured community. Open Chats is a platform centred around open conversations that sometimes touch on sensitive topics. However, we recognise that we must conduct our conversations respectfully,” the statement read.
The podcast has since removed the controversial episode from all platforms and issued a written apology.
Despite the apology, many believe that words are not enough, and that action needs to be taken to stop this kind of behaviour from happening again.
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