Outrage over picture of women caged at the back of bakkie

Yesterday, a picture of a women seated in a cage at the back of a bakkie surfaced on social media. While the picture stirred social media commentators, many voicing outrage at the incident, the Eastern Cape driver, Johan Erasmus, has since explained that the farm-worker, Linda Senekal, requested to sit in the cage.

The farmer explained that Senekel, allegedly four months pregnant, requested a lift from him and due to the heat requested to sit in the sheep cage located in the rear of the bakkie.

In a video released on social media, a women requests that Senekal explain the incident.

“I asked for a lift from the farmer and he gave it to me. He asked me if I wanted to sit in front and I said ‘no it’s too hot and I’d rather sit in the back, because we are used to climbing in at the back’,” Senekal explained.

The women in the video subsequently tells Senekal:

“And the boss always helps people in need of assistance. So we think we are doing a good deed, but other people are reporting the entire story incorrectly. It musnt be a long story, so [Senekel] just say that you appreciate it every time that someone helps you, [because] its not easy to get a lift into town.”

Meanwhile, the ANC Women’s League has expressed outrage at the farmer, further stating that the incident is extremely offensive.

Echoing popular sentiment, director of Women on Farms Project, Colette Solomon asserts that the incident showed that old patterns of power inequality and power hierarchy were still common.

Solomon added that racism was still the norm in farming areas, and that by and large, those socioeconomic relationships of inequality are still very much in place.

Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille, has called for the police to immediately investigate the matter.