Land Rover South Africa is reconsidering its sponsorship of the “Afrikaans is Groot” festival after Steve Hofmeyr’s racist tweets brought a barrage of criticism down on the festival as well as the sponsor.
Land Rover South Africa is reconsidering its sponsorship of the “Afrikaans is Groot” festival after Steve Hofmeyr’s racist tweets brought a barrage of criticism down on the festival as well as the sponsor.
“It would be sad if a misdirected social media campaign resulted in Land Rover no longer being able to support such events,” the company said in a media statement Thursday 6 November.
“We will be reviewing our future sponsorship of the festival.” Hofmeyr, who is no stranger to controversy, had his sponsored bakkie withdrawn after tweeting recently that he believed black people were responsible for apartheid.
Among the barrage of incensed tweets were those of Conrad Koch, the comedian behind the puppet Chester Missing of eNCA news.
He wrote a column for The Times challenging the sponsors of the AIG festival, which has said that it was not their function to get involved in the private or public views of festival performers.
Land Rover, too, has been under attack for its affiliation with Hofmeyr.
The statement denied any relationship with the musician and condemned acts of hate speech or racism, adding a long-standing involvement in humanitarian outreach in Africa disprove allegations that have been directed at them.
“Land Rover South Africa has been placed in an untenable situation by both the opinions of Hofmeyr; and the retort by media and public,” the statement said. It said Hofmeyr’s personal opinions have jeopardised the Afrikaans music industry as well as the festival sponsors.
“Equally, the South African public and media have largely – and unfairly – put the blame at the foot of the organisers and sponsors, rather than questioning the personal views of a single artist,” it said.
“Land Rover will continue to pursue its other humanitarian and environmental projects that continue to provide a better world,” the statement concluded.
The AIG festival is on later this month in Pretoria and Cape Town.
