“It is encouraging to see that political student leaders are not above the law. I want to emphasise that leaders should accept responsibility for their statements‚ and not make themselves guilty of cheap politicking‚” Barnard said.

Menziwa posted a handwritten apology on his Facebook page on Tuesday and attached the offending post.

In his apology‚ Menziwa said there were serious consequences for violating the rights of the white community‚ such as being expelled for a year from the university and losing funding for his studies.

In a first of its kind locally‚ a website has been launched to help victims anonymously report hate crimes in South Africa.

The platform was created by the Love Not Hate campaign‚ a nationwide initiative addressing violence against lesbian‚ gay‚ bisexual‚ transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation plans to launch the pilot phase of a new racism reporting app. The Zimele Racism Reporting App intends to aggregate data and provide a trend analysis of hotspot areas where racism may be prevalent.