Oxford student refuses to tip waitress until "land is returned" in South Africa

An Oxford University student has been called a "racist bully" after he refused to tip a white waitress, leaving the note "WE WILL GIVE TIP WHEN YOU RETURN THE LAND" on the bill instead.

Non-land owning waitress Ashleigh Schultz was reduced to tears when Oxford student Ntokozo Qwabe handed her the note at a restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa.

Ntokozo later wrote on Facebook that he and his friend were "unable to stop smiling" after the incident. He bragged that the 24-year-old waitress shook and burst into "typical white tears" when she read the note he left at the OBZ Cafe last week.

Since the incident and Facebook post went viral, the waitress has been pledged over $6000 on a Go Fund Me page looking to give her the tip she missed out on.

The full post from Facebook.

"Go to your fellow white people"

Ntokozo, a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, wrote on Facebook that the management came out to address him and his friend, calling them "racist" because of the note.

Ntokozo and his friend then started "drawing [the manager] to the political nature of the act & why we couldn't be bothered that they decided to catch feelings from the note" before "[chasing] him back to do his job".

On Facebook he wrote that the moral of the story is that "the time has come when no white person will be absolved" for stolen land, regardless of whether you have land or wealth.

Backlash

Ntokozo, who studies law, has since faced a backlash of online commenters, with people calling him an "idiot" and "intolerant".

One South African commenter, Sihle Ngobese, decided to pay the tip himself.

"Qwabe is someone that claims to speak to the downtrodden and the disenfranchised yet he has the audacity to bully a working-class young woman." He wrote on the Go Fund Me page.

"I just wanted to make a small gesture to show South Africans that if we love and respect each other it makes our country great."

The Go Fund Me page, which has raised around £1125 so far.

"Needs to be slapped"

Ashleigh's friends on social media said she is going through a tough time at the moment, after her mother was diagnosed with cancer.

"She has a very sick mother she cares for, and had to move flat recently and is worried about all of this. She did burst into tears because she is having a tough time at present."

Another friend, Stacey-Leigh Wood, said:

"This is so sweet of everyone that donated. That other idiot [Ntokozo Qwabe] still needs to be slapped though."

"Helplessly foolish"

Since the post, Ntokozo was banned from Facebook for three days, and had his actions condemned by the governing political party of South Africa:

"Ntokozo Qwabe's behaviour is as much borderline criminal behaviour as is helplessly foolish. Such behaviour must be rejected and abandoned." The ANC said in a statement

Meanwhile 834 people have liked a page calling for his expulsion.

On his return to social media after his three day ban, Ntokozo took to Facebook to "set the record straight" as he sees it.