Slur about interracial relationships ends in hard work for Facebooker

An unconditional apology and undertaking to complete 100 hours of community service is the outcome for a KwaZulu-Natal woman who posted several offensive‚ hurtful and discriminatory comments on social networking site Facebook.

Stephanie Odendaal must also make a damages payment of R7‚000‚ to be donated to two non-profit organisations in KZN.

These terms were contained in a settlement agreement‚ which has been accepted by the Equality Court‚ according to the South African Human Rights Commission.

The SAHRC instituted the application in the Equality Court held at the KwaDukuza Magistrate's Court on behalf of Pamela MacDougall‚ against Odendaal.

It said Odendaal had made comments based on race‚ which had been directed at MacDougall "and persons involved and/or engaging in mixed race relationships in general".

The SAHRC said in terms of the settlement agreement‚ Odendaal had acknowledged that her comments had constituted unfair discrimination which amounted to a violation of human dignity.