From the beginning I must admit that I did not listen to the Johann Rupert interview, nor was I there. I did however read the News24 article, or rather what I assume News24 cherry picked out of the interview for the sake of outrage and sensation.

I also read the response articles on Fin24, which was a statement of facts lifted from the News24 article, and Ferial Haffajee’s article, where he lambasts the “really rich white guy” (nice description there, Ferial. Didn’t expect anything less from you. Your articles always show a clear disdain for white males and white people in general. And your description is true, he is rich, but that is not all he is). And then a mouth piece from Charlene Naidoo which is more of the same “the rich white guy” routine and has no point at all, except for having a go at Rupert for… you guessed it… being rich and hurting her feelings.

The rest of the nonsense in those articles misses the point of what he says completely.

But first, let’s take a look at Johann Rupert being rich. Yes, he is rich. Why is he rich? Well, he is the Chairman of Remgro and Richemont, previously called The Rembrandt Group or officially the group was known as Rembrandt Trust (Proprietary) Limited. Founded by his late father, Dr Anton Rupert.

And before anything is said about Dr Rupert being privileged, I would suggest that his biography, simply named: Anton Rupert: A Biography be read. The late Dr Rupert comes from very humble beginnings. His company was built with nothing but hard work. By manufacturing cigarettes in his garage.

But them pointing out that Johann Rupert is the ultimate evil, which in South Africa is a rich white man, is not my point, like it was theirs, as this seemed to be their focus point to gain a few thumbs up from normal non white South Africans.

Now we all know the EFF and BLF have their thing for Johann Rupert and have convinced their followers that he is indeed an evil man, or what did the EFF call him? Oh yes. The White People’s President or something to that effect. It still boggles my mind how they can say things like that, and it’s considered okay, but anyway. We know that most of South Africa regards Rupert with heavy scepticism, which is their right. But these people seem to have missed the point of what he said completely, because of how he said it.

WHAT he said was completely ignored in articles. HOW he said it became the focus point. Which is a big problem as his message disappeared. He even had to go and tweet that he didn’t mean to insult anyone.

Everyone became outraged and had their feelings hurt, because the no nonsense, rich white man stated facts and didn’t worry about their sensibilities. And all this was amplified by scepticism and later on jumped on for sensation by the likes of Ferial Haffajee and Charlene Naidoo, mainly because they dislike rich white men and chose to ignore what was said.

Look at what the man said and think again. You don’t run empires worth billions and what you say doesn’t make any business sense.

Focus on what he said about foreign investors. He would know, because he is an investor. Remgro is an investment company.

The world doesn’t revolve around your feelings. Even though those looking to create sensation makes you think so.