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Waitress refused tip by Oxford student who made her cry 'typical white tears' receives donations of over £4,000

Ntokozo Qwabe boasted about leaving the remark ‘We will give tip when you return the land’ instead of a tip on Facebook

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
Tuesday 03 May 2016 12:36 BST
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The picture used on the GoFundMe page set up for people to donate to Ashleigh
The picture used on the GoFundMe page set up for people to donate to Ashleigh (GoFundMe)

A waitress in South Africa who was reduced to tears after an Oxford University student refused to pay a tip until white residents “return the land” has seen hundreds of people donate to a fund in her name following the incident.

Ashleigh Schultz, 24, a waitress at Obz Café in the Western Cape was described as having cried “typical white tears” when Ntokozo Qwabe and his friend handed her their bill declaring the reason they would not pay a tip.

Mr Qwabe’s actions became known after he posted about the incident on Facebook, claiming that he was “unable to stop smiling” over what had happened. He described how the waitress had started shaking when she had seen the note, adding: “She leaves us and bursts into typical white tears (like why are you crying when all we’ve done is make a kind request? Lol!)”.

Since the incident friends of Ms Schultz have reportedly claimed she is going through a “tough time” and is caring for her mother who has cancer, while a campaign to “tip Qwabe’s server” has raised $6,145 (£4,190) in the space of three days.

The campaign to tip Ms Schultz was kicked off by Shile Ngobese, who visited the café and sought out the waitress in order to leave her a large tip.

Speaking to News24, Mr Ngobese said: “Qwabe is someone that claims to speak to the downtrodden and the disenfranchised yet he has the audacity to bully a working class young woman. Waitresses are not rich people. They are trying to make a meagre income to pursue further opportunities.

The Facebook post which appears to be written by Ntokozo Qwabe. He says later 'go to your fellow white people and mobilise for them to give us our land back.' (Gofundme.org)

“I just wanted to make a small gesture to show South Africans that if we love and respect each other it makes our country great.”

Hundreds of people have donated to the GoFundMe page set up by Ernst Shea-Kruger, who has increased the funding goal to $10,000 “after an unbelievable amount of requests”.

Mr Shea-Kruger is listed as being based in Shreveport, Louisiana, in America though it is not known what connection he has to Ms Schultz, if any.

Mr Qwabe is a law student at Oxford University and reportedly part of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, which campaigns for the statue of Cecil Rhodes to be removed from Oriel College. As Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope, the imperialist passed laws which some historians say laid the foundations for apartheid.

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