According to the Daily Maverick, James Albert French has categorically denied ever uttering the racial slur the comedian and reality TV star claims he used.
And the allegation by Tol Ass Mo, or Mongezi Ngcobondwane, that he was insulted by a white man is also false, as French is himself an African American whose family is descended from Africans enslaved in Orange County, Virginia.
An influential businessman who promotes investment opportunities in Africa, French is the son of a renowned surgeon who worked directly with Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, and a grandson to grandparents who were devoted players during the Civil Rights struggle in America.
In light of his family’s tireless involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, French has voiced his shock and outrage at what he claims are completely fabricated lies by Ngcobondwane to cover his own backside.
Speaking to the Daily Maverick, French said that “as an American and a proud Black American, the ‘k-word’ is not part of my vocabulary”.
“As a Black man, the thought that I would use a racial epithet against another Black person is absurd and unworthy of serious comment,” he added.
French furthermore turned the tables on Ngcobondwane and his wife Mome who was, according to the publication, also recently arrested for crimen injuria and assault pertaining to the same incident, by saying they were the ones being racist.
He is quoted as saying that the incident was “an unprovoked, violent racial and xenophobic attack on me and my companion, an Asian-American”.
“After firing a weapon at me, my attacker has now tried to assassinate my character in the media through slander, in a desperate attempt to defend his indefensible actions. Whatever my appearance may suggest to you, I was raised proudly as a Black American,” French added.
Ngcobondwane in his account of the incident claims that he was parked in front of an ATM and busy drawing money while his wife waited in the car, when a driver who struggled to get past his vehicle started swearing at his wife. He says he rushed over to see if she was alright but, just as he was about to drive off, the white man in the car called him the ‘k-word.
“I hit the brakes, got out of the car and manhandled him,” he told the Daily Sun.