The man accused of punching a pastor and calling him a racial slur in South Africa on June 21 because of his hat turned himself in to authorities late last month, according to news reports.
Police Capt. Kay Makhubela told the Johannesburg newspaper The Times that the man was detained at a police station on Friday morning and has been charged with assault to cause grievous bodily harm.
Surveillance video of the initial incident has gone viral.
It shows Johannesburg man Ron Rambebu, pastor of Greater Glory International Ministries, in a car with the windows down at a gas station in Johannesburg when a man in a black T-shirt reached inside the car and started pummeling the pastor.
Rambebu then drove off, while the alleged attacker and his friend waited at a white Ford Mustang, The Times reported.
At one point, Rambebu stopped the car and got out, and that’s when the men drove off in the Mustang, The Times reported.
Rambebu later returned to the area to get surveillance video and ask gas station attendants what happened.
“They told me that those people said something about my EFF cap that I was wearing and that they were calling me the k-word [kaffir, a pejorative for Blacks used in South Africa],” Rambebu said.
The acronym stands for Economic Freedom Fighters, a political party in South Africa.
One Twitter user hoped to rally a crowd to appear at the alleged attacker’s first court appearance.
Thaba Koena said on Twitter:
“Lets go and welcome this racist today in Roodepoort Magistrate court when the colonial court grants him bail at 9am.”
