Newly crowned Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters has once again found herself at the centre of controversy‚ which has sparked a raging debate.
This after pictures of Demi-Leigh wearing gloves while serving food at Ikageng community centre went viral.
Thousands of social media users lambasted Demi and questioned her reason for wearing gloves. Some questioned if the decision was “racial” while others defended her against the backlash.
Demi-Leigh strongly defended her intentions in the wake of the storm that erupted around the soup drive.
She said she was saddened by the debacle and that her intentions were misunderstood.
“I just want to clear something. All the volunteers on sight wore gloves because we honestly thought that it’s the right thing to do while working with food. We were handing out food to young kids and that was the only intention with wearing the gloves‚ it was purely to be as hygienic as possible. I really feel like my intention were really misunderstood but I would like to apologise if I offended anyone‚” she said on social media.
Miss SA spokesperson Claudia Henkel said Demi-Leigh had no malicious intentions by wearing the gloves.
“Our intentions were completely innocent going into the home. We were handed the gloves together with all other volunteers as we walked in and it was purely for hygiene purposes. The thing is it was such a busy day‚ so we hopped from preparing food to playing with the children. We did not think that the pictures would cause such a hype on Twitter as they were really innocent‚” she said.
According to a statement issued by Miss South Africa the purpose was to help prepare and serve a hot meal to 300 people as part of an on-going campaign.
The statement went on to explain that Demi did not wear disposable gloves throughout the entire visit.
Ikageng programme director Carol Dyantyi said all volunteers including their staff members wore gloves during the food preparation.
“All volunteers‚ including our staff members‚ wore gloves during the food preparation. It was mandatory. It was such a successful day and I am sorry that the focus is now on the gloves rather than the positive impact it had‚” she said.
It has also since emerged that Demi did not wear gloves during previous charity drives involving underprivileged children and food.
In December last year Demi visited “Lig Kinderbediening” children’s home where a Christmas party was held for the kids. Demi was photographed serving pizza to children wearing no gloves.
Source: Sowetanlive.co.za