Cape Town - Many domestic workers face abuse from their employers behind closed doors but are too afraid to come forward because the law does not protect them.
This was part of the submission by the Women’s Legal Centre at the Equality Court matter involving domestic worker Gloria Kente, 50, and her then-employer’s boyfriend André van Deventer, 35.
Kente alleged that Van Deventer racially abused her many times between 2006 and 2013, calling her the k-word. The last incident allegedly turned physical and he spat in her face, she said.
There is a criminal matter before the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court in which Van Deventer faces charges of common assault and crimen injuria.
Kente also brought an Equality Court application for R100 000 in damages and an unconditional apology from Van Deventer.
On Tuesday advocate Anel du Toit, for the Women’s Legal Centre which is acting as the friend of the court, presented to the court articles of equality case law and research on domestic workers in South Africa and internationally.
According to figures from Stats SA (January 2014) there are nearly a million domestic workers in the country.
The centre’s application was to provide the court with context on the Equality Act and its relation to domestic workers, Du Toit said. She said the Equality Act prohibited unfair discrimination, hate speech and harassment of any individual.
Domestic workers faced three-pronged discrimination based on their race, gender and class.
Many domestics faced abuse “behind closed doors” and workers were too isolated to mobilise.
Du Toit said the court’s verdict could have a broad effect, considering the number of domestic workers faced with a similar situation as Kente. “It is our submission that if the court finds that there was prohibited conduct (in this matter), for the court to send a message that will not only affect the nearly 1 million domestic workers but also any other person that could be affected (by the verdict),” Du Toit said.
Kente and Van Deventer faced off in court yesterday when Van Deventer, who’s representing himself, cross-examined Kente.
The incident occurred in June last year. Kente, who worked as a live-in nanny at Van Deventer’s girlfriend, Mariechen Pienaar’s, home said on the day of the latest incident he grabbed her by her pyjamas and said he hated k*****s.
She alleges that Van Deventer proceeded to say: “I hate k*****s, f*****g Mandela should die in hospital, you stole our land. You k*****s throw poo in the airport because you don’t pay tax. I hate you as an individual.”
Although Van Deventer admitted to saying some of the words, he denied having spat on Kente.
He also denied that there were any other such incidents other than in 2008, when he paid an admission of guilt fine.
In court yesterday he accused Kente of taking him to the Equality Court because she wanted money and asked why she “hated him”.
Excerpts from a report by clinical psychologist Dr Helena Thornton, read out by Williams in court yesterday, showed that the abuse had not only affected Kente but also her children, who live in Khayelitsha.
Thornton interviewed Kente in August.
Thornton will be quizzed on the report on Wednesday.
Cape Times