LOCAL COMPANY ACCUSED OF HOMOPHOBIA

A Southern African travel company that specialises in safaris has been accused of being homophobic by a UK publication.

This comes after an alleged string of shocking emails to the Millivres Prowler Group (MPG), the company behind the British gay publications DIVA, Pink Paper and GT.

According to the Pink Paper, the company sent a standard email enquiry to SafariWise – which has offices in Worcester and in Swakopmund, Namibia – enquiring about it advertising in one of the company’s publications.

Berdene MacLeod from SafariWise Namibia allegedly replied to the MPG representative with an abusive email telling him to “piss off”, and a second email stating: “Go wank yourself, you asshole faggot!”

Johan Van Tonder, owner of the South African branch of the company owner expressed his surprise at the allegations.

“The South African side would never have said this,” commented Van Tonder. “I am shocked. We are only affiliated in that we share the name. The two offices are entirely separate.”

When Mambaonline contacted MacLeod she denied having sent the e-mail and said that this was the first she had heard of the matter.

“No I did not send those e-mails. I am not the only one that uses my e-mail address,” she said, promising that she would investigate the claims report back to Mambaonline.