ENEWS PRESENTER CALLED GAY SLUR AT CAPE TOWN GYM

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Andrew Barnes

eNews television anchor Andrew Barnes is furious after he was called a gay slur when he kissed his partner goodbye at the Green Point Virgin Active gym in Cape Town.

On Tuesday, Barnes wrote on his Facebook page: “Verbally abused at gym this morning by an old fart who took exception to seeing my partner kiss me goodbye….In this day and age?? Seriously??”

He went on to add: “Anyway, we’ve laid a formal complaint and the manager of Virgin Active Point will be talking to the aggro homophobe tomorrow.”

On Wednesday, Barnes returned to Facebook to offer an update on the incident.

“So The Homophobe didn’t pitch this morning….but kudos to Virgin Active. Very impressed with the way they’re responding to our complaint,” he wrote.

“As soon as The Homophobe is back at gym, they’ll be giving him a talking to and taking ‘corrective action’. And thank you for all your support guys. There is no place for discrimination, intimidation and bullying…”

Virgin Active South Africa’s head of strategic communications, Les Aupiais, told The Times that “We have a zero tolerance approach to any kind of prejudice and we will act swiftly as soon as we have all the facts”.

Barnes declined to comment when approached by Mambaonline and said that he was not giving any interviews on the issue.

Barnes has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined eNews over 10 years ago. He has been the lead anchor on News Day since the show launched in June 2008.

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