trans-people often treated unfairly and denied rights

By Lesego Masike (BTM Reporter)

ALL AFRICA – April 23, 2008: A transsexual woman from the Kwa-Zulu Natal province in South Africa, Michelle Van der Merwe, who was denied access to female ablution facilities during her stay at Amcor Dam Resort in August last year, plans to pull the resort to court.

Born as male (and identifies as ‘transvestite’), Van der Merwe, her husband and niece arrived at the resort on 17 August last year with the aim to relax at the resort.

On that day Van der Merwe was using the female ablution facilities, but on the second day, the caretaker allegedly requested her to vacate the resort because a certain woman lodged a complaint  to the area manager that she had found her (Van der Merwe) naked in one of the toilets.

The caretaker explained to Van der Merwe that the complainant described her as a ‘man/woman’ who was using the ladies’ toilets. He also explained to her that they didn’t have facilities for people like her.

However, Van der Merwe insisted that there was nobody during that time the caretaker referred to.

“I don’t know what the problem is, I have been to the place before, and people loved me. But now I was instructed to leave the area and we had to move out next to the caravan river where we stayed for three days.”

It was learnt that after Van der Merwe warned the area manager that she was going to sue the resort, he then offered her the opportunity to stay at the resort for a month for free.

“They asked me to sign a paper saying that I agree to stay for a month, but my husband refused that I sign.”

Intending to take the matter further, Van der Merwe is currently working with Gender Dynamix (the first African-based organisation solely focusing on transgender community) and lawyer Ashika Singh to take the case to the Constitutional Court.

She complained; “The government says that they will protect gay people. What about me? I don’t go out now since I am always worried of what will happen to me.” Van der Merwe further stressed that she would rather take the matter to the highest court.

Expressing her views, Singh suggested that “unisex facilities should be introduced in addition to the traditional male/female facilities for those who are not of a conservative type then people have the option of using it or not .”

“There must be a reason for majority’s right to be violated, but the right of the minority has to be protected as well”, Singh added.

Commenting on the issue, Newscastle Municipal Manager Bonga Ntanzi said; “I have a duty to protect other users of the facilities. As far as he is concerned he took a decisive decision to be a woman but as we are talking biologically he is a man.”

While Ntanzi admits that his staff could have used a better method to handle the matter, he still insists that they (the staff) definitely did not have the intension to discriminate against Van der Merwe.
 
Asked why Van der Merwe was asked to leave the Amcor Dam, Ntanzi said “no one was asked to leave. He left in anger when he was asked to use male facilities.”

Ntanzi is adamant that Van der Merwe will use male facilities until there is a medical document stating that she is now a woman.

“South Africa still needs workshops and not only on gender issues but also on cultural issues as well. People must be made aware of things like these so that they can tolerate it better”, Ntanzi asserted.

On another incident just few days after the mini-skirt march against sexual harassment at the Noord Taxi rank in Johannesburg, a ‘trans lesbian’ was humiliated by a taxi marshal demanding to know her gender.

Prisca Mogapi, a Botswana resident who identifies as a ‘trans lesbian’ was travelling from Johannesburg to Gaborone when the taxi marshal refused to register her passport arguing that he looks like a man and not a woman reflected on the passport.

“He asked me whose passport this is, and I said I am the one travelling”, replied Mogapi.

The taxi marshal said the passport read ‘Miss’ and therefore he wouldn’t register her.

To avoid further humiliation, Mogapi decided to take her passport and wait for the next taxi, only to find that the same taxi marshal was still responsible for registrations.

She went back to him to register again but he started shouting while asking people if Mogapi looked like the person on the passport since it read ‘Miss’

Mogapi had to call a taxi driver whom used to see her travelling to South Africa to intervene on the situation who then instructed the marshal to register her.

She described her journey to Botswana as a torment because people were teasing about her in the taxi. “When ever I think of hate crimes in South Africa I fear that I might be the next one.”
 
According to Liesl Theron of Gender Dynamix, no cases of denial of access for transgender people have been reported to Gender Dynamix, but in her opinion cases of denial of access happen to trans-people daily.

“The law of South Africa has not been tested with respect to the rights of the minority with special reference to transsexual people regarding the use of public facilities. This is an important opportunity for such minority rights to be brought to the forefront and we urge the public to support Michelle in whichever economic effort they could support her in”, explained Singh.

Gender Dynamix is currently working on raising funds for the court case.