In December last year, a man was thrown off a moving commuter train in Johannesburg.
His crime? Carrying a woman's handbag and behaving in a feminine manner.
The Metro security didn't come to his aid - because the two men who threw him of the train were Metro security guards.
Now, supposedly these security guards are there to protect the passengers from just this sort of thing, which is a most bizarre and disturbing turn of events to say the least. To compound this insult to the victim's person and dignity, when he tried to report the incident at a police station, the policemen refused to take his statement or to lay a charge against his assailants - and chased him away.
In another, different incident that took place few weeks ago, a transgender woman reported being assaulted in the street by a man who hurled abuse (and a soft drink can) at her for being transsexual. And this for just daring to walk past him - in a public street! Providing a common denominator between both cases, police officers refused to take her statement when she wanted to lay a charge of common assault against him.
Again, last Friday night, a man was accosted by four other men while walking home who called out obscenities and threw small stones at him from behind, striking him on the back. When he stopped to confront them, they taunted him by saying "what are you going to do about it?"
Despite the fact that every time a particular gay business owner of my acquaintance calls the cops to remove illegal foreign criminals selling drugs on the nearby street corner, they never bother to show up - but last Saturday night a pair of policemen and a security guard turned up to harass the regular car guard hired by the business owner (who has been instrumental in foiling a number of robberies in the immediate vicinity) outside, threatening him with arrest for "being in the street".
On Monday again, I heard about a post-op transwoman who had a job offer at her current employer for a permanent contract withdrawn after she informed the HR officer about her trans history and was then called a "he-she thing".
Yesterday, a man reported being called a "fucking moffie" (three times) by a municipal street cleaner in the street, who accosted him at the entrance to his business - and was told by him that his complaints to the municipality would "get him nowhere". And perhaps unsurprisingly, so far this has been the case.
This morning another man reported that his HR department at work was repeatedly harassing him about the family responsibility leave he'd submitted for leave he took when his partner was ill, despite the repeated explanation that they are in a civil union and he cannot produce an actual marriage certificate.
The point of this tedious litany of examples is that everywhere around us there is still prejudice and bigotry which regularly boils over into discrimination and hate crime.
And yet many of us for some weird reason actually bury our heads in the sand and choose to believe that we have "already won equality" in South Africa and can therefore afford to sit back and not worry about affairs which concern us - and in effect, threaten our well-being.
While there are other larger concerns which affect us all, such as discrimination from the national blood service, no hate crime laws targeting homophobic or transphobic offences, no legal definition or codification of male rape - and the perpetual threats of certain groups to revoke the rights we actually do have, these incidents are the flip-side of the coin. The side we don't see much, unless we experience this ourselves.
It is reminiscent of George Orwell's Animal Farm in which he states that "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than other animals".
If THIS is equality then perhaps my understanding of the lingua franca has slipped a little - because equality means not having to endure any of the above scenarios while those guilty of criminal offenses enjoy full immunity by virtue of tacit agreement.
I wonder what that means... Don't you?
______________________________________________________________
If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.
If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.
All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.
________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment