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The City of Ekurhuleni has fired a staffer filmed making "egregious racist remarks" against a client, a spokesperson said on Friday.
"The City acted swiftly to institute disciplinary processes against the Bedfordview-based licencing department official following egregious racist remarks and aggression against a client which went viral on the social networks [on] May 20," said spokesperson Themba Gadebe.
"The official failed to make a substantive written submission on why his contract should not be terminated, subsequently, the City had no option but to dismiss the employee with immediate effect."
The action was taken in line with Schedule 8 (4), subsection 4 of the Labour Relations Act, "whereby pre-dismissal procedures may be dispensed with if it constitutes exceptional circumstances".
News24 reported that customers at the Bedfordview licencing department were left shocked last Monday after the official made the racial slurs, which was recorded by motivational speaker Gavin Sharples.
Sharples felt the official was treating the customers as "sub-humans".
"I said 'excuse me, can you put some love in your heart and treat this young man with a bit of kindness'," he recalled.
Sharples said the official then turned to him and said: "I'm sick of you people."
The video shows the official standing in the waiting area and saying: "You can do whatever."
That is when Sharples asked to speak to his supervisor.
When Sharples approached the supervisor, the official can be heard saying "you white people... I don't like you".
"The supervisor asked me to put the complaint in writing," Sharples said.
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