The Oxford activist at the centre of a firestorm for mocking the “white tears” of a waitress he snubbed to make a political point has branded her feelings “irrelevant”.
Ntokozo Qwabe, leader of the failed Rhodes Must Fall campaign, gave an unrepentant press conference the day after his victim called for him to be punished.
He insisted that his “protest action” – when instead of giving her a tip he and a friend demanded the “RETURN THE LAND” – was more important that her reaction.
The firestorm stems from a gloating Facebook post he made after he and another activist refused to tip 24-year-old Ashleigh Schultz, instead opting to make a political point.
He described upsetting Schultz by saying: “WE WILL GIVE TIP WHEN YOU RETURN THE LAND”, referring to the event at a Cape Town café as “so black” and “wonderful”.
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Qwabe doubled down this week, telling gathered South African media that his political crusade is more important than Schultz’s feelings, and mocked a crowdfunding campaign which has raised money for her.
Wearing an “Oxford Crew” hat, he said: “I mean 150,000 [South African Rand – about $10,000] we never thought it would get to those kind of hysterical levels.
“We did not wanna make money for Ashleigh. That was not our agenda.
“It was a protest action, it was not directed as Ashleigh – and quite frankly, Ashleigh’s feelings are irrelevant to us.”
Schultz, whose family owns no land and lives in a rented home with her cancer-stricken mother, criticized Qwabe over the weekend, and said Oxford should discipline him.
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She stopped short of calling for him to lose his scholarship to the prestigious university, despite a 45,000-strong petition demanding he be stripped of the cash.
In an interview she said: “Oxford isn’t a place where racists from South Africa are fit to go. It’s a privilege to be there. He is far more privileged than me.”
Schultz said she earns around $1 an hour, meaning that it would take her around 50 years to earn enough to fund Qwabe’s lavish scholarship.
But she insisted he shouldn’t “lose everything” despite being “a bit of an idiot”.
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