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Racial remarks by an Indian-origin minister of the African National Congress-led provincial government in KwaZulu-Natal has created a furore in the state with the demand for his removal from the ministry gaining momentum.
Amichand Rajbansi, leader of Minority Front, an ally of ANC, was accused of writing an article in a community newspaper that Africans should not be allowed to move into low-cost houses in the township of Chatsworth in Durban.
Rajbansi denied writing the article, which termed South Africans as 'rapists and killers', and blamed a junior party worker for creating the fiasco. However, he claimed that there were no racial overtones in the letter published as an advertorial letter.
Condemning his use of 'racist' language to garner votes for the local government elections on March 1, Stanley Moonsamy, an ANC leader said such kind of language was 'unacceptable' in South Africa.
The local Daily News, edited by Indian-origin Dennis Pather, carried an editorial condemning the letter and said Rajbansi was a product of apartheid politics.
The Daily News said, "Such blatant racism, even from a man of Rajbansi's reputation, is mind-boggling at this time in our history."