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SOUTH AFRICA: Ryanair Drops Racist Afrikaans Test Following Worldwide Condemnation

It appears common sense has finally prevailed as Ryanair has dropped the racist Afrikaans test for South African passengers to prove their nationality before travelling on the budget airline.

Chief Executive Michael O’Leary described at a news conference in Spain that the South African government’s profiling accusation is “rubbish” but said the test had been dropped.

“Our team issued a test in Afrikaans of 12 simple questions like what’s the name of the mountain outside Pretoria? They have no difficulty completing that, but we’ve we didn’t think it was appropriate either. So we have ended the Afrikaans test because doesn’t make any sense.”

The South African government said last week it was taken aback by the low cost carrier’s decision to force UK-bound travellers holding the country’s passport to take the test, calling the move a “backward profiling system”. 

“The South African government have acknowledged that there’s a problem with the vast number of false or fake South African passports.”

Afrikaans is spoken by just 12% of the 58 million people in the country and often associated with apartheid and white minority rule.

O’Leary, whose airline does not operate flights to and from South Africa carries more passengers around Europe than anyone else.