- Seneiya
Kamotho
- English/Kenya
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- Post-Apartheid South Africa has many reasons for a smart 15-year-old girl to be hopeful, but still many reasons to be fearful too. While shopping for a new outfit at the Pep Store in Louistrichardt on 29th August, 2000, Lorrained Nesane was accused of shoplifting, though there was no evidence of crime and she had more than
enough money to pay for the items she was about to purchase. She was forcibly taken to a back room by the white female sales clerk. Her money and the items she was to purchase had been taken from her. A black male, also in
the room, forcibly removed her clothes and began painting her face, then body, with white paint.
The clerk escorted her to the entrance, told her she looked beautiful and forced her to leave the store, refusing to give her back her money. Naked and painted white, some people she encountered on the street just laughed at her. The police did make arrests and the case went to court, but the trial was conducted in Afrikaans and the interpreter
could not be understood, so the proceedings were impossible for Lorraine
to understand. The trial resulted in minor fines and suspended sentences for the white perpetrators. The humiliation kept Lorraine out of school for two weeks.
South Africa which is hosting the World Conference Against Racism is still struggling with the legacies of apartheid, a system of legally-enforced racial discrimination that
had been declared a crime against humanity under international law.
The struggle by the South African government,
parliament and civil society organisations to transform institutions steeped in discriminatory practices is likely to be a long one.
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