If Lindiwe Mazibuko and Angie Motshekga appear poles apart
politically, there is one reality they have shared socially — being subjected
to public sexist insults.
Mazibuko’s case is only the latest in a number of public
incidents where women are dismissed on the basis of body, age and dress — that
age old language of reminding women that even when we have earned our right to
leadership, we are not truly to be taken seriously in the public sphere.
This kind of belittling manifests itself even more
aggressively in public spaces outside the plush carpets of Parliament. Too
often these scenes play out in our taxi ranks where black women are punished
for owning their bodies.
