A Cape Town waitress has responded to the Oxford University student who refused to tip her until white residents in the country “return the land” to black residents.
Ashleigh Schultz, a waitress at Obz café who was left in tears after the incident, said Ntokozo Qwabe should be disciplined by the university but revoking his scholarship “is not going to help”.
Mr Qwabe had posted on social media he was left “feeling elated” by the incident at the café earlier this month. The 24-year-old waitress said to the Daily Mail that Oxford should “have a word with him”.
She said: “Oxford isn't a place where racists from South Africa are fit to go. It's a privilege to be there. He is far more privileged than me.
“He's at Oxford and I can't afford to study and then I get harassed! But he doesn't deserve to lose everything for that… for being a little bit of an idiot.”
She added: “What made me cry was the fact that someone could be so rude without understanding somebody else's circumstances. I can understand protests and aiming at political figures and stuff like that. But you can't go into a restaurant and demand your land back.
“I have got nothing to do with this. I'm not racist in any way, shape or form. I wasn't rude to him once. I get the idea of what he is on about but, you know, pick your fights basically.”
Mr Qwabe wrote in his post, now deleted after his Facebook account was suspended, that he was "unable to stop smiling" after the incident.
He said his friend wrote on the receipt: "We will give a 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 and starts shaking," he added.
"She leaves us and bursts into typical white tears (like why are you crying when all we've done is make a kind request? lol)."
Mr Qwabe said the act had brought "the pressing issue of land onto the agenda" by causing other restaurant staff to come and speak with them.
"The part where we take up arms hasn't even come and y'all are already our here drowning us in your white tears? Really white people. Wow [...]
"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 bulls***. We are here, and we want the stolen land back."
Mr Qwabe’s actions led to more than $6,000 being raised for Ms Schultz on a Gofundme page.
The Independent has contacted Mr Qwabe for a comment.
