Vusi Thembekwayo “Clarifies” His Apartheid Remarks

Moreover, he apologises to the Forbes family.

By  | Mar 09, 2023, 09:24 AM  | Vusi Thembekwayo  | Drama

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Vusi Thembekwayo might not be having the best start to the year. The leading motivational speaker who has earned millions of rands for public speaking is seemingly not getting the type of appreciation he used to get. First, it was his weird use of zebras and their stripes metaphor which did not land.

Read more: What Did You Hear About Vusi Thembekwayo's Wife?

As reported at the time: 

It all started when a tweep shared a video of one of Vusi Thembekwayo’s latest motivational talks. In the clip shared the motivational speaker is using the metaphor of the Zebra’s stripes and the fact that they are diagonal rather than straight to explain how business people choose the safest decisions to make their business work instead of wanting to stand out.

Safe to say when the clip landed on the blue app, tweeps were ready and armed with jokes, confusion and the suggestion that even he knew that what he was talking about did not make sense. 
Then it was his sentiments on apartheid, which led many to believe that he was an apartheid sympathiser. As reported at the time: 

It started when a clip from Vusi Thembekwayo’s recent interview with JJ Tabane was circulated. The interview was essentially focused on the corruption at Eskom allegedly involving the ruling party. However, then Thembekwayo used the example of how the mystery surrounding the assassination of Hip-Hop local legend Kiernan “AKA’ Forbes would have been resolved if the country still had the apartheid regime. 

… Thembekwayo was still defensive about the matter. This is as he took to Twitter to attempt to nuance his stance better in order to contextualise his stance. As such, he stated that his sentiments were not to say that apartheid was better. Instead, he asserts that he used the example to nuance how the apartheid government was more capable than the current ruling party in addressing socio-political matters. 
In light of the backlash, it seems that Thembekwayo has revisited his previous sentiments in an attempt to “clarify” his previous utterances. 

Vusi Thembekwayo “clarifies” his apartheid remarks
Taking to his YouTube channel, Vusi Thembekwayo uploaded a video reflecting on his previous remarks suggesting that the apartheid regime was more capable. This was a stance he attempted to assert by using the passing of Kiernan “AKA” Forbes and the investigation into his assassination as an example. 

As such, he first started out by apologising to the Forbes family for using their misfortune for his contentious stance on apartheid. 
It seems that this was the only thing that made sense in the entire video as he attempted to nuance his stance by reiterating how “capable” the regime was despite the moral compass of their actions. But Thembekwayo made it clear that he was not backing down.


As such, it seems that this was in preparation for his upcoming interview with Radio2000’s Aubrey Masango on Thursday, 9 March 2023, where the two are set to talk about, “Is it possible to recognise eptitude in an evil system like Apartheid? While recognising ineptitude in a legitimate dispensation like our current state?”

Following the tweet, it did not take long for Aubrey to receive backlash, as it was reiterated that apartheid was a crime against humanity. Therefore, attempting to find the “humanity” in it is sort of not only justifying apartheid but arguably glorifying a system which would have consciously excluded persons like Aubrey and Vusi…
Image credit: ZAlebs 
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