STATEMENT MINI SKIRT TAXI RANK ATTACK

The ANC Women's league is deeply disturbed and disgusted by the actions of some men at the Noord Street taxi rank.

It is shameful that these young women had to be subjected to such abuse because of what they were wearing. South Africans have fought hard for the freedoms we enjoy and it is not acceptable that a group of depraved men felt they could infringe on these girls rights by harassing and abusing them.

No man should feel they have the right to touch, abuse, harass or humiliate anyone, especially based on what they are wearing, and no man has the right to dictate what a free woman can or cannot wear. What these young women experienced was a gross violation of their right to human dignity and we encourage police to use the CCTV footage to press charges against those responsible.

We would like to urge these young girls to open criminal cases with the police and should they need any assistance in this regard the ANC Women's League would be happy to help them.

We would also like to commend the Metro Police who came to the girls rescue in their time of need. We thank them on behalf of the girls for preventing a situation that could possibly have turned into something even more sinister.

The men involved in this incident should be ashamed of themselves, and I hope all South African men share the sentiments of the Women's League and are ashamed at the actions of this Noord Street mob. It is sad that none of the men at the taxi rank stood up to their contemporaries and stopped this incident from happening.

The Women's league would also like to caution organizations who suggest that women should dress in a certain way to prevent these incidents from occurring, instead they should outright condemn any form or abuse of women as there is absolutely no excuse for what happened.

Statement issued by Troy Martens, ANC Women's League national spokesperson, January 4 2011

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