IOL, March 13, 2017

Social cohesion advocate and anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee on Sunday laid criminal charges against an apparent racist for inciting violence and hatred on social media.

Abramjee, accompanied by Andy Mashatile, former Gauteng Community Police Board member, and an attorney, visited the Brooklyn police station to lay charges against Obatala Mcambi on Sunday morning.

Mcambi posted on his Facebook page: “I use my guns to rob and kill Indians & Whites. Please fellas, join me, we have to rape their kids with AIDS virus too!” (sic). He later posted “Kill the pigs.” Abramjee said he gave police copies of the man’s Facebook profile and screenshots of the posts.

Mcambi posed with firearms and in one photo the serial number appeared to be filed off. He also boasted large sums of cash on some of his photos.

“I appeal to the South African Police Service to immediately investigate this matter and bring the person/persons responsible for the hate speech, incitement to violence, and intimidation to justice,” Abramjee said after laying the charges.

“I further request that a charge of hate speech, incitement, and intimidation be opened and thoroughly investigated. We are sick and tired of this nonsense. The law must come down hard on people like Mcambi. He must be tracked down. Police must investigate the matter as one of urgency and we also need to establish whether Mcambi is his real name,” he said. The posts had caused widespread anger and “people are also opening charges in other areas”, Abramjee said.

Mashatile said “there is no place for racism and hatred. We are all one. We want this person hunted down, arrested, charged, and punished. I came here to provide an affidavit to police to support the charges opened by Yusuf, a fellow #TurnBackCrime ambassador”.

Legal representative Adila Alli said: “I decided to join in and make a statement also. This person must be arrested. These posts are unacceptable.” Abramjee said the various posts had since been deleted from the man’s Facebook page.

“Scores of people reported him to Facebook. Mcambi updated his profile picture at 10.26pm last night [Saturday] with a photo of him with a revolver in his hand,” he said.