Darren Scott has basically been fired from Jacaranda 94.2 FM (A regional radio station in Gauteng) and Supersport (a national sports show). Call it what you want and cushion how the parting ended, but this sports presenter come radio DJ has ended over a decade of public broadcasting in South-Africa.

A lot of people are very happy about this but a lot of people are perturbed about it too. However how much of this incident have we interrogated and has the right conclusion really been met?

To understand this we need to ascertain the answers to two questions.

Was Darren Scott asked to leave because he used the K word?
Was Darren Scott asked to leave because he was a racist?

The story that has been loosely told starts off with Darren lending a certain individual money in spurts over time. In fact one loan is apparently as much as R3000-00. This gentleman buys a car and a house in the meantime but is yet to re-pay Darren Scott.

On a team building session, a group with Darren Scott end up at a bar. This individual attempts to join and is kicked away by Scott because of the fact that Darren is upset with this individual for non-payment. The individual tries to join the group again through an invite from someone at the table and at that point Darren Scott uses the K* word to strongly suggest that this individual leaves his space.

Two important incidents take place immediately afterwards.

Darren and this said individual “kiss and make up” as Darren profusely apologizes for the use of the word and furthermore lets this individual off all his debt. This individual accepts fault and accepts Scott’s apology.

The second thing that takes place is that a complaint is lodged with the human resources of Jacaranda FM. Both parties comply with the investigation and are responsive but clear that the issue has been resolved.

Seems someone at the station is not happy with this cheap outcome and gives the newspaper Beeld a little bit of inside info.

From that moment on Darren Scott faces one of the most challenging ordeals of his career.

Darren shows utter remorse and re-iterates the fact that he is not racist and that this was said in a moment of rage. He is willing to accept any punishment thrown his way.

I personally believe him.

Using the K* word can NEVER be acceptable and will never be appropriate and most of all must never be tolerated. However, everyone has a temper and a boiling point. At the point where a person goes into blind rage, he is not entirely responsible for the words he uses. This is recognised in law too.

At a session on Friday at a team building session for a company, I spoke about diversity. I asked them what was worse:

A hardened racist that causes; or intends to cause; or incites himself and others to hate another race and possibly cause harm and injury. Or a person that never practices racism but in an out burst of rage says a word that is unforgivable?

I mentioned this because there are political leaders in the current lime light that are clearly practicing the former but because they are not using any derogatory words will keep their jobs and never face the judiciary. Whereas here, you have a person that could not be too racist if he is lending money and has a naturally mixed friendship base.
In my own opinion Darren Scott should not be fired. However he should face specific sanctions. If I was to mete out the punishment here I would ask him to register for a course on cultural diversity and to give a humble and expressive apology on air through both Jacaranda and Supersport. I think the companies acted in a manner they felt would be acceptable to the public, however, I am not sure that this is what the public expected.

As the ANCYL stated can a judge really rule on an interaction between two people out of the public eye? The parties remedied the situation to an extent that they had called it totally and mutually resolved. If there was any ounce of doubt that Darren Scott was a true racist I would not be writing this blog.

The truth is that racism exists and the more we fool ourselves that we have come along way to deal with it the more we suppress the real problems of redress. We all know what happens when a boiling pot eventually hits a certain point – the explosion is massive.

Madiba is the icon of forgiveness and tolerance. However we need to be honest and realize that not everyone shares this very same sentiment. Therefore punishment against proven racists should be done in a manner that would educate like minded individuals in an effort that gave these people an insight into why, how and what the differences are and what the solutions are.

I fear punishing non-racist people for racism in the extreme, based on outbursts, does nothing for reconciliation but everything for further racial polarisation.