‘Racist' Maritzburg Magistrate In Hot Water Again

Pietermaritzburg magistrate Ashin Singh, who is facing the possibility of being sacked from the bench after a pleth-ora of complaints laid against him, has landed himself in hot water once again.

- Jonathan Erasmus

This time he told a public meeting that “the only black Africans who are at the same level as Indians, whites and coloureds in terms of work ethic are Zimbabweans”.

It was Singh’s organisation, the South African Minority Rights Equality Movement (Samrem) that called the public meeting, which was held in Raisethorpe, Pietermaritzburg in March to discuss the topic of “African racism” perpetrated against whites, coloureds and Indians.

But the local newspaper, The Witness, reported that the meeting soon degenerated into a “rowdy racism ruckus”. Singh had said black Africans are more racist than Afrikaners and that the minorities were being oppressed by the “racist” ANC government. The mushrooming of informal settlements in predominately Indian areas, he had said, was part of a concerted ANC effort to influence voting patterns.

He is also reported to have said that homeless Africans “shit and pee on our streets” and that the state was deliberately excluding minorities from university.

“When they (squatters) are not happy with government they throw their shit at us,” he was quoted as saying.