Standard Bank economist in hot water over racist tweet

Standard Bank economist Chris Hart has landed himself in hot water following a tweet sent out on Sunday night which many have taken to be racist.

In the tweet, Hart appears to argue that there is a growing sense of entitlement among black South Africans as well as an increasing “hatred toward minorities”.

The tweet, part of a much longer argument around how allowing capital to flow into South Africa, attracted serious ire on social media, with many calling for Standard Bank to take disciplinary action against Hart, who has more than 20 000 followers on Twitter:

Read more: #PennySparrow: Twitter isn’t buying estate agent’s half-baked apology

In statement, the banking giant said:

“Standard Bank Group distances itself from comments made by Chris Hart on Twitter on 3 January 2016. The comments made by him are factually incorrect, make inappropriate assumptions about South Africa and have racist undertones,” the bank said in a statement.

The bank further tweeted:

For his part, Hart apologised for that the tweet had caused offense, but didn’t seem overly perturbed by people’s reactions to it:

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