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eNCA anchor reacts to homophobic slurs

Cape Town - eNCA anchor Andrew Barnes and Virgin Active management have teamed up to take action after homophobic slurs were made against Barnes and his partner at Virgin Active Green Point on Tuesday morning, reports Times Live.

Barnes and his partner were at the gym when his partner said goodbye to him and gave him a kiss. Another gym member allegedly took offence and approached the pair and according to Barnes, verbally abused them.

Barnes took to his Facebook page around 12:00 to express his anger about the situation.

"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?? (sic)"

Barnes also added that a complaint had been laid with the management team at Virgin Active Green Point regarding the matter.

"Anyway, we've laid a formal complaint and the manager of Virgin Active Point will be taking to the aggro homophobe tomorrow. I'll keep you posted... (sic)"

'The Homophobe'

Referring to him as "The Homophobe", Barnes said on Wednesday on Facebook that he had not been spotted at the gym again by management.

"So The Homophobe didn't pitch this morning....but kudos to Virgin Active. Very impressed with the way they're responding to our complaint. As soon as The Homophobe is back at gym, they'll be giving him a talking to and taking 'corrective action' (sic)."

Les Aupiais, who acts as head of strategic communications for Virgin Active South Africa, had the following comment on the incident:

"We have a zero tolerance approach to any kind of prejudice and we will act swiftly as soon as we have all the facts. We do try to bring parties together to see if we can find some middle ground and elicit an apology as a starting point," she added.

Barnes anchors News Day from 13:00 to 16:00 on eNCA on weekdays.

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