Miss South Africa accused of racism for wearing gloves at orphanage

The act caused an online outcry

Miss South Africa's photos while visiting black children at an orphanage caused an online outcry for wearing gloves while feeding the children.

The orphanage staff brushed off the whole deal saying that any comment of Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters being racist is 'ridiculous'.

"Of course it wasn't because she didn't want to touch black children,"  BBC  quoted Carol Dyantyi, a spokesperson for the Orlando West Community Centre Ikageng, as saying.

Nel-Peters was volunteering to feed orphans at the centre and the gloves were a health and safety measure. "We told her, and all other volunteers, to wear them while they were handling food around the children," Dyantyi told BBC Trending. "It was purely to protect the children from the risk of contaminated food. This social media reaction is ridiculous."

Thousands of Twitter users took to social media to criticise Nel-Peters after photos of her at a soup drive on Wednesday began to circulate. Many accused her of wearing the latex gloves "because she didn't want to touch black children" and shared images of her hugging dogs and white children with bare hands.

https://twitter.com/Hadebelm/status/883044557671116800

I hear this lady is @Official_MissSA, can anyone explain why is she feeding BLACK kids with latex gloves? @Julius_S_Malema @CellC pic.twitter.com/UrXlfnmWnA

— Phala Matata (@PatsiPhala) July 6, 2017

 

In a video posted on her Twitter account, Nel-Peters said that she wore the gloves for sanitary reasons and denied that were any racial undertones to her actions.

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-Leigh Tebow (@DemiTebow) July 5, 2017

"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," Nel-Peters said. She also apologised to those who were offended.



Claudia Henkel, a spokesperson for the beauty queen, also sent images to BBC Trending of Nel-Peters glove-less and playing with the children after the food had been served.

Henkel said that whilst the social media backlash had 'saddened' Nel-Peters, she is adamant about doing more soup drives in the near future. "And if she is asked to wear gloves for the safety of the children, then she will again," Henkel added saying.