Cage woman speaks out
Social media in overdrive over ‘racist’ event
THE SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is investigating the picture of a woman in a cage at the back of a bakkie which was circulated on social media yesterday.
“The matter has been reported and referred to our Eastern Cape office, and the matter is being investigated. As to whether rights have been violated or whether the act is tolerable, these questions will be answered in the course of the investigation,” SAHRC communication co-ordinator Gushwell Brooks said yesterday.
The image of the incident which apparently took place in Cradock, Eastern Cape, went viral on social media. The 41-year-old farmer who was driving the Isuzu bakkie, however, defended himself.
Johan Erasmus said he was troubled by comments slamming the incident as racist. He said the woman had decided to get into the cage willingly by herself. However‚ he confirmed there was empty space in the passenger seat of the car.
According to Erasmus‚ he was just helping out as he gave the woman a lift from a farm to drop her off in town where she was going to a clinic.
“The right story is … first‚ that thing is not a cage but a sheep cage that we use to weigh lambs‚” Erasmus said. “I was on the farm and that lady asked me for a lift to town and she‚ on her own‚ got into that thing and I dropped her in town. I am not happy about that [being portrayed as racist] because I am trying to help people‚ but how this thing is going like I did something wrong.”
Erasmus claimed “the sheep cage” fills the entire back of the bakkie, which could have been the reason the woman was inside the cage. The picture‚ however‚ appears to show that there is space around the cage.
Western Cape premier Helen Zille tweeted that the matter was in the hands of the police. However, Cradock police spokesman Louis Stone could not confirm this.
The picture reportedly appeared first on a Facebook group called the “Oos-Kaap Plaaswerkers Opstand” (Eastern Cape Farm Workers Uprising), which is a movement by farm workers taking a stand and speaking out against injustices and illegal labour practices in the sector.
However, Linda Steenkamp‚ the woman at the back of the bakkie‚ said she chose to sit there because it was extremely hot. She said she needed a lift and wanted fresh air.
Steenkamp said she wanted to go to a clinic in Cradock and got the lift when Erasmus visited the farm where she stays with her boyfriend. “I climbed on the back myself. I didn’t want to sit in front‚ it was too hot. I wanted to sit in the wind‚” she told Times Media Group yesterday.
Steenkamp said she was unemployed and has been living with her boyfriend and two children on the Suurfontein farm, about 60km outside Cradock, for two years.
“He’s been coming to our farm for a long time‚” said Steenkamp when asked whether she knew Erasmus.
Twitter users had a lot to say about the image. “Call me naive its okay, i do not need facts about that picture. A woman is caged. That is inhuman,” expressed @ThepoI.
“if this man can travel on a public road with a caged black woman, imagine what he does to her in the privacy of his home,” commented @TheBoyLencoe.