{"id":110237,"date":"2018-03-27T12:19:21","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T11:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/?p=110237"},"modified":"2020-07-28T13:29:54","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T12:29:54","slug":"penny-sparrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/penny-sparrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Was Penny Sparrow? Here Are Interesting Facts About The Late Convicted Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penny Sparrow was a white South African female who worked as a real-estate agent in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal. Before her death, She became infamous in the country after she referred to black South African beach-goers as monkeys on a Facebook post on New Year’s day, 2016.<\/p>\n

Penny Sparrow’s Racist Comment<\/h2>\n

Penny Sparrow took to Facebook to share her frustration on the state of the beach in Durban after the holiday. Beach-goers, said to be specifically Blacks in general; both South African blacks and from elsewhere, had horribly littered the coastline, making it a huge discomfort to other people, but most especially the environment.<\/p>\n

Here is what she wrote in her Facebook post:<\/p>\n

\u201cThese monkeys that are allowed to be released on New Year\u2019s eve and New Year\u2019s day on to public beaches, towns etc obviously have no education what so ever so to allow them loose is inviting huge dirt and troubles and discomfort to others. I\u2019m sorry to say that I was amongst the revellers and all I saw were black on black skins what a shame. I do know some wonderful and thoughtful black people. This lot of monkeys just don\u2019t want to even try. But think they can voice opinions and get their way of dear,\u201d read the first part of her post.<\/p>\n

She went on to add that\u00a0\u201cfrom now on, I shall address the blacks of South Africa as monkeys as I see the cute little wild monkeys do the same, pick and drop litter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Penny
Image Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her thoughts, almost soon after she posted it, went viral as other users of the social media platform called her and her comments, racist. It was pointed out to her that Black People should never be described as monkeys. Some others, however, came to her defense citing her right to freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

The conversation became tense most especially as the injury of racial segregation, created through a system of apartheid\u00a0from 1948 up until 1994, remains fresh in the minds of the people of Africa’s southernmost country. Ms. Sparrow ended up deleting the post and apologizing, saying she did \u201cnot mean it personally\u201d. That apology and redress was late as the authorities had gotten involved with the case.<\/p>\n

Conviction And Fine<\/h2>\n

The African National Congress filed and followed up with the case against Penny Sparrow. She was eventually convicted in the Scottburgh Magistrate\u2019s court in the town of Umzinto after she pleaded guilty\u00a0to the charge of crimen injuria which is the unlawful or unintentional impairing of the dignity or privacy of another person.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Vincent Hlatshway gave Sparrow a 5,000 rand (about $344) fine as well as a suspended two-year prison sentence.\u00a0She was also ordered to make a public apology for her statements over the same platform which she used to have aired her previous views.<\/p>\n

Read Also:\u00a0Blacks Are illiterates, Unemployed, And Dying Because of Whites – Malema<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Life After Conviction: How Penny Sparrow Was Affected<\/h2>\n

Penny Sparrow, who was also fined R150,000 by the Equality Court for her social media statement, said during an interview with a Magazine after her court case was completed that the case has taken a toll on her life. She started off by reiterating that she is not a racist, before saying that her punishment was too harsh and the repercussion of the whole event had landed heavily on her health.<\/p>\n

She said she was disappointed that her daughter’s request for a postponement was dismissed, adding that she was not in KwaZulu-Natal when the matter was heard.<\/p>\n

Ms. Sparrow further told the Magazine what she thought about the ruling, defending her statement by explaining what exactly she meant by likening black people to monkeys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe white way is to say to our children, \u2018you little monkey\u2019. We don\u2019t have hate speech for our children. We love our children. Even my animals, if they\u2019re naughty and pull things out of the dustbin I also say, \u2018you naughty little monkeys\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sparrow goes on to say she is “truly sorry” and never meant to insult anyone with her comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very ill with this, it goes right up and they can\u2019t get it right because there\u2019s so much stress because I\u2019ve been accused of something I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the incident, Penny Sparrow became jobless, left her home on the south coast after receiving various death threats, and lived with friends. In 2019, just about 3 years after the racist comment, she died of colon cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Penny Sparrow was a white South African female who worked as a real-estate agent in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal. Before her death, She became infamous in the country after she referred to black South African beach-goers as monkeys on a Facebook post on New Year’s day, 2016. Penny Sparrow’s Racist Comment Penny Sparrow took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWho Was Penny Sparrow? 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