Partners in apartheid fight, Indian South Africans facing racism again

Edwin Naidu
Feb 19, 2026 | 19:13 IST
Nanda Soobben, a South African cartoonist, captures the current situation in the country

Racial targeting has cast the spotlight on relations between communities in the country that seeded Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign against oppression and injustice

Last December, a rather unsavoury video went viral. In it, a South African woman — a former airline employee — is seen hurling a stream of invective at a fellow passenger on an aircraft, asking the person to “go back to India”. “Indians and the Taj Mahal smell like sh*t,” she says.

In the video, which quickly racked up views on social media, the woman’s heard saying, “I work at the airline… Every time there are Indians on the Durban flights, you guys smell like sh*t. Go back to India.” The airline, confirming the woman was indeed a former employee, condemned the video and her sentiments.
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