A reverend used Twitter at the weekend to call for white people in South
Africa to be killed.
The man singled out Helen Zille as among those who should be killed.
The Reverend Kemo Immanuel Waters runs a business called the Kemo
Therapy Institute of Truth and is an active member of Twitter, Facebook
and MySpace. He is a DJ and describes himself on his Twitter profile as
a preacher, author, poet, father and truth seeker.
From his previous tweets, Waters sounded like an intellectual, spiritual
person, who occasionally discussed politics, but not with any controversy.
Then suddenly in the early hours of Saturday morning, this changed.
At 1.33am, the reverend wrote: “The only way to end racism is to kill a
material number of whites. @helenzille your indifferent and patronizing
stance is a double dare… ”
The tweet caused an uproar, with many responding angrily.
Zille said the tweet was hate speech and that she would be laying
charges against Waters.
Tweeter @bronwynnielsen asked if he had lost his mind.
Waters replied: “No I have not lost my mind. But it is sad that this
is what it takes to give racism the attention it deserves?”
In response to @Sibusisomtungwa, he tweeted: “You missed the gist of
my msg… which is the only time a black man is afforded a dignified
audience is when he pulls a gun.”
Waters also discussed the ANC centenary: “Happy 100th year
anniversary to @MyANC_. You (sic) job is not done… but, a job well
done in the past 100 years… You will rule till the rapture”.
Since his rant on Saturday, Waters has received many death threats.
He said he had received five phone calls on Sunday morning from
people wanting to kill him.
“All the people who gave me death threats have a racist undertone.
Someone, a boer, said to me that everyone close to me will die,”
Waters said.
“I will never back down. I will never take it back and I will never
apologise,” he added.
Waters said he had been upset after his family had been made to
sit at the bar in a busy restaurant in Camps Bay, Cape Town, for
half an hour.
“In Joburg, you can go anywhere and you feel welcome.”
Waters said he would never kill anyone but knew black people who would.
