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Cape Town — Velaphi Khumalo, the man who called for black South Africans to do to white people what “Hitler did to the Jews”, has apologised.

In an email addressed to South Africans, the ANC and the Gauteng government, and sent to News24, a man identifying himself as Khumalo, said it was not his intention to stir up racial tension in the country.

This after he called for the cleansing of the country of white people.

“We must act as Hitler did to the Jews. I don’t believe any more that there is a large number of not so racist white people . I’m starting to be sceptical even of those within our movement the ANC. I will from today unfriend all white people I have as friends from today u must be put under the same blanket as any other racist white because secretly u all are a bunch of racist fuck heads. as we have already seen [all sic],” he wrote.

Yesterday, Khumalo said he hoped the people of South Africa would find it in their hearts to forgive him.

“I would like to apologiese [sic] to the Gauteng government for my emotional comments that I made on a public platform. I further want to apologise to the ANC for the comments I made that do not reflect the ideologies of a democratic society that are our ideals,” he wrote.

He admitted that his comments were offensive and “uncomfortable”.

“I have seen first hand what racism and oppression of any race can do to a country and would not want my son to grow up in such a society,” Khumalo said.

His employer, the Gauteng Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation Department, has started an internal process against him.

Khumalo said he was not willing to comment on the process and what it involved.

Meanwhile, a Cape Town man has opened a criminal case against a Facebook user who called for blacks to do to white South Africans what “Hitler did to the Jews”.

For 21-year-old Daniel Amos, Khumalo’s post was disturbing and needed to be addressed outside the realm of social media.

Amos opened a case of crimen injuria against Khumalo, after he said on Facebook that he hated all whites.

He called for them to be “cleansed” out of the country.

Khumalo’s post was in response to a Facebook post by former KwaZulu-Natal estate agent Penny Sparrow, who compared black New Year’s revellers on the country’s beaches to monkeys.

Amos said he was offended by Khumalo’s post, which was circulated on Facebook on Tuesday.

“I find it extremely disturbing that 21 years after the end of apartheid, we still see racism from both white and black people.”

At a time when the country’s citizens should band together, people were spreading racial slurs and making generalisations about an entire race, based on one person’s comments, he said.

Amos said he would approach the South African Human Rights Commission.

Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC Van Wyk confirmed the case and said they were investigating. – Sapa