A student who helped lead the campaign to tear down a ‘racist’ statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oxford has boasted about refusing to tip a waitress because she was white.

Ntokozo Qwabe bragged online that he and a friend made the woman cry ‘typical white tears’ after writing on the bill ‘we will give tip when you return the land’.

The incident, in a café in South Africa, provoked a fierce backlash from critics who branded him a ‘hypocrite’.

Ntokozo, 24, is one of the leaders of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, which campaigned to remove a statue of the 19th Century imperialist from Oriel College.

Ntokozo Qwabe

Although he is a Rhodes scholar himself and received money from the Rhodes’ estate to study at Oxford, Ntokozo and other activists claimed forcing ethnic minority students to walk past the statue amounted to ‘violence’.

On Thursday, he wrote on Facebook about an altercation with a waitress during a visit to a restaurant called Obz Café in the Western Cape, South Africa.

LOL wow unable to stop smiling because something so black‚ wonderful & LIT just happened! And of course‚ the catalyst was a radical non-binary trans black activist – Wandile Dlamini – from the Rhodes Must Fall movement. Because trans activists have BEEN the ultimate blessers of this decolonial struggle!

To cut the long story short‚ we are out at Obz Cafe with the said activist‚ and the time for the bill comes. Our waitress is a white woman. I ask the said activist what the going rate for tips/gratuity is in these shores. They look at me very reluctantly and they say ‘give me the slip‚ I’ll sort that out’. I give them the slip.

They take a pen & slip in a note where the gratuity/tip amount is supposed to be entered. The note reads in bold: “WE WILL GIVE TIP WHEN YOU RETURN THE LAND”. The waitress comes to us with a card machine for the bill to be sorted out. She sees the note & starts shaking. She leaves us & bursts into typical white tears (like why are you crying when all we’ve done is make a kind request? lol!).

Anyways‚ so this white woman goes to her colleagues who are furious. She exits to cry at the back & a white male colleague of hers reluctantly comes out to address us & to annoy us more with his own white tears telling us that he finds our act “racist”.

We then start breaking it down for this white man & ask him why they are catching feelings when we haven’t even started (like the part where we take up arms hasn’t even come & yall are already out here drowning us in your white tears? Really white people? Wow.).

We start drawing him to the political nature of the act & why we couldn’t be bothered that they decided to catch feelings from the note. We tell him it’s great that business as usual has stopped & the pressing issue of land is now on the agenda in that space – seeing the cowntry was celebrating ‘Freedom Day’ yesterday. We then chase him back to do his job. And continue with our conversation before exiting the café.

Moral of the story: the time has come when no white person will be absolved. We are tired of “not all white people” and all other bullshit. We are here‚ and we want the stolen land back. No white person will be out here living their best life while we are out here being a landless and dispossessed black mass. NO white person shall rest. It is irrelevant whether you personally have land/wealth or you don’t. Go to your fellow white people & mobilise for them to give us the land back.

That will be the starting point of all our interactions from now. We will agitate all our spaces with the big question: WHERE IS THE LAND?

Thank you to all the non binary‚ trans & all other black bodies who have been at the helm of this decolonial moment in the settler colony known as South Afrika. NOTHING will ever be the same again. Alibuye Izwe Lethu!

His post went viral on the internet, with critics from around the world hitting out at his apparent prejudice.

Muhammed Habib Banderker wrote: ‘What an absolute fool of a human being this guy is.’

Tim Flack said: ‘Oh big man, so chuffed to make a waitress cry. For someone who has gone through so much hardship in his life, I’m no longer inspired by you.

‘You are not a role model for anyone, you are a hateful human being. There’s my white tears.’

Aaminah Masauso said: ‘Have you ever worked as wait staff? Have you ever had to depend on gratuity to make ends meet? ‘How would you feel if it was a black waitress being subjected to such?’

Riaz Muhammed branded him ‘racist’ and said: ‘You will amount to nothing. Hypocrite.’

Yesterday, Mr Qwabe responded to his critics online by accusing the ‘white media’ of ‘going hysterical’.

He added: ‘One moment of white tears always makes news despite the everyday unarticulated black pain the dispossessed & landless masses of this cowntry have to live through! WOW. Whiteness is so weak. Cute actually.’

But South Africans are coming together to show Ntokozo Qwabe who the real role models are.

Ntokozo Qwabe

Hundreds of patrons are making their way to the restaurant to find the waitress to tip her, while others have joined various online campaigns to raise money for the waitress in solidarity, apparently one person has already raised over R10 000 towards a fund for the waitress.

A GoFundMe page has also been set up in honour of the waitress. Click here to support the cause.

South Africans are standing up against the racist nature of Ntokozo’s actions and they are all saying, it won’t be tolerated.

I think we should thank Ntokozo for showing us his worst side, so we can retaliate by showing our best. We are all South African, we all belong here… we are in this together & the only way we’ll get through this, is together. We need to stay motivated and inspire each other to be better. Together, South Africa will rise!

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About the Author

Brent Lindeque is the founder and editor in charge at Good Things Guy.

Recognised as one of the Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young South African’s as well as a Primedia LeadSA Hero, Brent is a change maker, thought leader, radio host, foodie, vlogger, writer and all round good guy.

28 comments

  1. Shameful! If you hate whites so much why are you studying in Europe??? Go back where you come from you are a despicable human being!

    1. His is not the voice of all black South Africans! There are many black S africans i know that have warn hearts! The problem lies in the heart of the individual black or white. What I say has nothing to do with religion, but all to do with relationship with out Creator that is a God of Love. I know not all will agree but i have no problem with that. We have to start somewhere to stabslize this beautiful Country, what beter platform than the only truthful one? Anyone out there understands?

  2. The sad truth is that no matter what anybody says, this guy will NEVER change his mind. He’s on a crusade….of epic proportions, and in his mind he is righteous. And anything white is the enemy. It’s pretty black and white, right & wrong in his mind.
    Sad.

  3. I do not know you, but I read one thing, so subscribed. John D Willis, BA, MDiv, MA, PhD, President, Leadership Ethics Online

    I’m going to give you a try. I don’t have time to read more right now, finishing a major book by me, a good things guy willing to take some hits from the bad guys.

  4. He is actually a kind of low class person. Sick. Even my black friends are embarressed by this man with the sick mind. Brother you as a leader in the community must get your act together. Not a good example!!!! At the end of the day you will sow what you reap. That waitress was not part of apartheid and neither were you. You just jumped on the band wagon because all you see are richness for free.

  5. Ntokozo you are a dumb fuckhead dude. I hope they drown your dumbass in England or at the very least revoke your scholarship as you don’t know how to spell and you suffer from faulty thinking. Hey why don’t you go live in Zim do us all a favour bend over backwards and kiss your own ass. Not cos you’re black. Cos you’re a dumb fuck.

  6. A student maybe, but brainweak. Such comments and the people who make them irrespective, are inferior, inadequate and inconsequential. They create unnecessary discord.

  7. Started reading this drivel.. but he is an idiot with an education paid for by the same people he despises.. Idiot

    1. Wasted education, if you ask me! Assholes like that never learn anything, they just sponge. For that, it does not matter that the money is white.

  8. That white girl has to work for her money to pay for education because she didn’t get it for free and at Oxford of all places like this fool.

    Always playing the race card to further own agenda!

  9. It is so sad to think that these racial discrimination will never end. Fortunately it is not all Black people that has a sick and disgraceful mind like this idiot. He is one of the most privilege people in South Africa and reacted like an uneducated moron. Black people never owned land in South Africa as they are all immigrants from outside of South Africa. Time that he go and study the prehistoric history of Africa and see where he comes from.

    1. Worked all over sfrica Botswana was best fuckers like this destroyed Africa and then the begging bowl the Chinese love this😉

  10. the zulus do not own the land either, The Nguni (Ndebele, Swazi, Xhosa and Zulu tribes) diverged from the Sotho-Tswana and Tsonga within the past 1,000-2,000 years (Jorde et al. 1995). At some point along their southward journey, they came in contact with San hunters, which is why they now produce the “click” sounds that characterize their languages today.

  11. Hi Tokozo Qwabe. I have your land. Please come and get it. I’m waiting to give it back to you personally. Please don’t disappoint me. Bring a helmet.

  12. I am sick and tired of this blacks trying to manipulate the whites in this country that belong to us all. I am sick and tired of your bullshit talks about killing whites. If you as blacks want to fight whyvare you fucking waiting. Let’s fight and get this war going. I am so full of hate for the blacks that I feel like killing them in there millions. We will make soap with the liquid of there burned bodies and sell it to their families as a reminder for there stupid behaviour. We as whites are ready for a total war to keep our land which your blacks want to steal from us. Our whites build this country like we build the entire globe and will not allow idiots with no brains to destroy our children’s future. The devil himself is waiting for your blacks.

  13. Not much to say but here is proof enough that even an Oxford education cannot teach an imbecile anything.It’s bad enough that this trash was accepted by a renowned University!! Methinks he methodically escaped prison and swapped clothing with a legit scholar!!

  14. This man represents nothing about black people, he is weak minded and weak hearted…Ultimately not a real man at all. I’m also saddened by how his actions give the rest of us black people a bad name…true Africans are compassionate, loving, forgiving and God fearing. His day will come. Fellow south africans please do not be condemned by this evil man into thinking that this is the nature of black people. I hope that the waitress will find strength in her ordeal and not just pain.

    1. Hi Mandla. Yes this is unfortunately the way forward in our country. The biggest problem lies with leaders that instigate such actions through dialogue whether verbal or on paper. 22 years in democracy they claim “the current state of our country is because of apartheid” “white dominance is still prevailing”. Sadly i do not think this crap will end in our lifetime. The most worrying factor is that most of the people shouting “apartheid” and “racism” doesn’t know the meaning of those word as they only came to life post 1990. The true sufferers of that era is forgiving loving caring and sharing citizens. Apartheid was bestowed upon us. We did not implement it. Unfortunitely there is radicals on both ends of the colour lines which make it difficult for the larger groups of people as they incute actions like this. On a lighter note: Im pale skined(pinkish) and i think you’re more brownish so i think this black and white thing doesnt include us

  15. What an idiot this waste of space is!Certainly hope this goes viral enough that there is nowhere he can hide his face!!

  16. Black people experience racism, and insults everyday at their workplace from their white masters and we do see such outcry and support, but one single white tear brings so much white outcry, as a black I am glad he said what said, truth is we will never be equal as long as white people still have our land that they took from us. All white people need to get over your weak white emotions.

  17. Need I say more. This story says it all. We don’t need people like him to build a true South African nation.

  18. Qwabe is a racist, a bully and a hypocrite. He is a troublemaker and we don’t want or need people like him in our country. Yes… “our” country… it belongs to all South Africans, regardless of our race, which principle is firmly enshrined in our Constitution.

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