South Africa is quickly becoming an unwelcoming place for racists, and that is long overdue.

For too many years South Africans, especially black people who are often at the receiving end of racist actions and remarks, would watch helplessly as they were being insulted and disrespected.

There would be a voice of protest here and there without any serious consequences for the those perpetrating racism.

Soon the storm would die out and we would all go back to behaving like our country was a "rainbow nation" heaven that the archbishop emeritus, Desmond Tutu, used to speak of - even though we all knew that's idealist.

A few months later another racist would have a public outburst, causing all of us to act surprised and condemn him or her - only to forget about it a few days later.

If we are lucky, a bigot would apologies for their remarks, assuring us that they were not usually racist, but "mispoke" after being frustrated by one thing or the other.

And on and on it would go. Well, not anymore.

SA is beginning to make racism very expensive for these bigots. And the most wonderful thing about this development is that it is the direct victims of racism who are leading the struggle.

The collective efforts of South Africans who exposed the racist rantings of one Adam Catzavelos should serve as a reminder that ending this scourge is in the hands of the people.

Without ordinary people taking this matter up and demanding action from individuals and businesses with links to Catzavelos, we would not have seen the kind of backlash against him that we have experienced over the past 24 hours.

For years, racial bigots have acted with impunity in this country because they believe that, despite having political power, the majority has no ability to take any meaningful action against them.

But the reaction to Catzavelos, which resulted in his family's business losing major clients and him being banned from one of the country's top private schools where his child attends, must serve as a warning to all other bigots that the nation will no longer tolerate their nonsense and bigotry.