#DontLookAway: ‘I learnt that we are on our own’

During this year's 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against Women and Children, Independent Media continues our

#DontLookAway campaign by

shining a spotlight on sexual harassment. Here Andy Maqondwana, a late-night radio host with KFM, tells her story #InHerOwnWords.

Cape Town - A few years ago, I was in a taxi going from Somerset West to Stellenbosch.

At some point on the trip, this man, who was quite drunk, got in and sat in the row behind me. Throughout the trip he was being loud and vulgar, much to the entertainment of the rest of the commuters, which further encouraged his behaviour.

He then decided to hit on me by constantly nudging my shoulder and making inappropriate comments about my body.

Each comment he made was met with a big roar of laughter from the commuters, who were mostly men. At that point I was sitting in one of the front rows and in silence, because I knew if I reacted it would just aggravate matters.

The way things were looking, no one was going to defend me.

This man then proceeded to move into my row, and started to now touch my face and try to kiss me on the cheek.

That’s when I began to protest, moving away from him, asking him to leave me alone. This carried on for 10 very long minutes, and all the while my fellow commuters were laughing at all of this action.

Only when this man was starting to get really aggressive, one of the men decided to stand up and call him out. This very same man was laughing just two minutes ago.

Did he call this man’s actions out because they were wrong, or was it for his ego? I will never know.

But what I do know is that up to a certain point, me being violated was okay until it wasn’t.

And this applied to only one person. So the rest of the men who said nothing, in fact egged on his behaviour, would’ve allowed this scuffle to continue.

That experience has never left me, because I climbed out of that taxi feeling so enraged and deeply disappointed and awakened to the reality that as women and children, we are on our own.