Pretoria, 04 November 2014 – Land Rover condemns any act of hate speech or racism. On the contrary, our long-standing involvement and support of humanitarian outreach across Africa disproves all the allegations that have unfairly been the misdirected onus of critics in the wake of personal opinions voiced by Steve Hofmeyr.
Land Rover South Africa has been placed in an untenable situation by both the opinions of Hofmeyr; and the retort by media and public. Land Rover has no relationship with Hofmeyr – the brand is a sponsor of ‘Afrikaans is Groot’, a musical festival.
The well-publicised personal opinions of the popular South African artist have jeopardised the Afrikaans music industry at large, the reputations of his music colleagues, and those of the sponsors that enable the cultural festival to happen.
Equally, the South African public and media have largely – and unfairly – put the blame at the foot of the organisers and sponsors, rather than questioning the personal views of a single artist.
It would be sad if a misdirected social media campaign resulted in Land Rover no longer being able to support such events. We will be reviewing our future sponsorship of the festival.
Land Rover will continue to pursue its other humanitarian and environmental projects that continue to provide a better world.
*Editors Note: I am not so sure that Steve Hofmeyer can be branded as a racists and one should be careful with these accusations.
