South Africa has an, er, 'interesting' track record when it comes to white people and black people. =P
I can imagine it wouldn't be too hard for those kind of connotations to appear, however accidental they may be. It'd always be on my mind if I met a south african person, at least...
My old school's librarian was from there and we never let her forget it. We'd mimic her accent and say "apartheid!".
Actually speaking on this subject, my mum always says she can't find it within herself to trust a south african person. She's just prejudiced against all of them because of what happened. I told her that was unfair and hypocritical of her- it's the Americans who can't be trusted.
considering that all the staff are volunteers with jobs, families, and other activities outside BYOND, i think we do the best we can. we eventually get to everything. so your comment of 'if the staff took more action' is not only un-warranted, but unfair.