White Men Charged in Attack on Black Teenagers at Pool in South Africa

NYT WORLD: White Men Charged in Attack on Black Teenagers at Pool in South Africa
By John Eligon
Section: World
Source: New York Times
Published Date: December 28, 2022 at 02:00AM

Two youths who tried to use a pool at a resort on Christmas Day said they were told it was for “white people only.” The violent encounter led to a charge of attempted murder and a call by the president to battle racism.

CAPE TOWN — A violent attack by a group of white men on two Black teenagers at a resort pool in South Africa on Christmas Day has sparked widespread outrage, reviving images from the ugly days of apartheid and serving as a stinging reminder of the country’s unresolved racial tensions.
Cellphone footage of the assault — which the teenagers said started when they were told the pool was for “white people only” — spread widely on social media. It showed scenes that could have been from decades ago, when apartheid-era laws restricted South Africa’s Black majority from using public facilities designated for white people.
A video clip shows one man delivering an open-hand slap to the face of one Black teenager, another graying white man casually holding a cigarette as he tugs the hair of the other Black youth, and one of the men wrapping the taller youth in a head lock and pulling him into the pool, seemingly trying to submerge the teenager’s head underwater.
Brian Nakedi, a former underground fighter against apartheid, said his 18-year-old son, Kgokong Nakedi, was one of the teenagers assaulted at the pool in Bloemfontein, a city about four hours south of Johannesburg. Both denied online claims that the youths had provoked the fight.
Mr. Nakedi, who witnessed the assault on his son, said: “I became incensed. We have to relive the pain through our kids.”
On Wednesday, the police announced they had arrested and charged three white men: Johan Nel, 33, and Jan Stephanus van der Westhuizen, 47, who appeared in court on assault charges; and a third suspect, 48, whose name was not released and who is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday on a charge of attempted murder. None of the suspects or their lawyers could immediately be reached for comment.
Since the fall of apartheid nearly 30 years ago, South Africans have proudly declared their country a “rainbow nation.” But the encounter, at Maselspoort Resort and Conference Center, adds to a litany of racist episodes that have induced soul searching and hand wringing among South Africans.
After a bouncer was accused of refusing entry to a Black patron without a white escort last month, protesters descended upon a bar in Cape Town. In May, the elite Stellenbosch University was the site of an uproar after video surfaced of a white student urinating on the belongings of his Black roommate.
Bloemfontein is the capital of Free State, a province that is a particularly hot kettle for racial violence. Once an independent Boer Republic for the white Afrikaans-speaking settlers who led South Africa’s apartheid regime, it remains a largely agrarian region. It also sits at the intersection of South Africa’s fiercely racialized debate over land.

Read More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/world/africa/south-africa-black-teenagers-pool.html

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