Cosatu deplores assault at Taxi rank 19-02-08

 

COSATU deplores assaults at taxi rank

The Congress of South African Trade Unions condemns the disgusting assaults on women by taxi drivers at the Noord Street rank in Johannesburg.

There can be no conceivable excuse for such attacks on women's dignity and human rights. It is absolutely no concern to taxi driver or anyone else what female passengers choose to wear. We endorse the view of Scelo Mabaso, chairperson of the Top Six Taxi Association, that these assaults are "inhuman and immoral".

COSATU also deplores the alleged lack of response by the police, to this, and many earlier reported instances of similar attacks.

The federation agrees with the view expressed in a Sowetan editorial, that "patriarchal tendencies still condemn women as inferior in our society, undeserving of an equal social status as men. This is because men still arrogate themselves the right to be the arbitrary regulators of culture and social norms to the extent of ramming the hegemony down women's throats at will".

COSATU demands that all perpetrators of these obscene acts be arrested and charged.

It is essential that South African society as a whole stands firm on women's constitutional rights to be treated with respect and dignity and to share fully in the freedoms guaranteed in our constitution, not least the right to wear what ever they choose.