Miss South Africa accused of racism for wearing gloves while with black children at an orphanage
The reigning Miss South Africa, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters has sparked a controversy on social media after she was pictured wearing disposable gloves while she was with black kids at an orphanage home.
Demi-Leigh, who’s a white South African was on Wednesday spotted at an event hosted by Sun International at a children’s home in Soweto, serving food and interacting with children at the orphanage while wearing latex gloves.
After the photos made rounds on Thursday, thousands of South Africans went on Twitter to criticised Nel-Peters and they also accused her of being a racist. The hashtag #MissSAChallenge began to trend on Twitter as they poked fun of the “hygiene” reason which they cited for the gloves.
Consequently, she posted a video, explaining why she was wearing gloves in the pictures saying:
“I just want to clear something up. All the volunteers on site wore gloves today because we honestly thought that it’s the right thing to do while working with food, and while handing out food to young kids. That was our only intention with wearing the gloves, was purely to be as hygienic as possible,” she said in the clip.
To everyone asking about the gloves, I truly hope that you’ll hear my heart and understand that it came from a place of wanting to do good. pic.twitter.com/Pl5amM2gEM— Demi-LeighNel-Peters (@DemiLeighNP) July 5, 2017
Not everyone was satisfied with her response as some are still making fun of the gesture. See their comments below…
