It seems one of the favorite past times of Caucasian Namibians, comprises of racial slurs and derogatory comments about the Afro race. Months after a school teacher was suspended for her racial slurs, a banker named Riaan van Rooyen; has also gotten a suspension for equating black people to monkeys.
Namibia suffered a horrendous colonization thst led to several genocides of indigenous Namibians; yet what is left of their colonial past is still been nestled in nest of racism and racial slurs by settled colonizers.
According to The Namibian, BANK Windhoek’s manager of sales, Riaan van Rooyen; who is entangled in a social media racism storm after he allegedly equated black people in a photograph to monkeys; has been suspended.
This comes after he recently reshared a post on Facebook from 23 October 2015 of monkeys jumping on a car and black men doing the same.
In reaction to the post, the bank’s manager posted; “Exactly the same … manners, IQ, and discipline.”
The Namibian could not verify when Van Rooyen made the Facebook post at the time of going to print.
Following the post, however, angry social media users took to Twitter; questioning whether this is the kind of sentiment Bank Windhoek has when nobody is looking.
A user asked whether the alleged racist utterances is what the bank stands for and represents.
Bank Windhoek’s Action On Riaan van Rooyen
In response, Bank Windhoek stated on its social media page that the post does not reflect the opinion and stance of the bank in any way, and that the bank regrets the incident.
“Bank Windhoek does not condone racism and the matter is being dealt with internally,” the post read.
The bank’s spokesperson, Jacquiline Pack, reiterated that Van Rooyen’s post does not reflect the opinion of Bank Windhoek; in any way but is the personal opinion of the individual concerned.
Responding to questions from The Namibian; Pack said the bank distances itself from the sentiments expressed by Van Rooyen.
“Bank Windhoek does not condone racism as it goes against our values and core ethics. The individual was suspended with immediate effect and is being dealt with in accordance with the bank’s internal disciplinary and ethics policy,” she said.
