The manager of Thulamela Municipality, Makonde Mathivha, has been ordered to pay R50 000 to a woman who claims she was insulted about her weight by a traffic officer who ejected her from a taxi, the Sowetan newspaper reported on Monday.
The woman was allegedly told she was too fat to be in a taxi, the report said.
The Thohoyandou High Court ordered the municipality to pay Lydia Tsanwani, of Tshituni, R50 000 in damages.
This was after she successfully sued the municipality for discrimination.
The incident occurred in 2002, the paper said.
Tsanwani said she suffered trauma when the traffic officer insulted her in front of other passengers.
Tsanwani, a teacher at Tshivhidzo Masiagwala Secondary School in Ngovhela, said through her lawyer, Philip Sebola, that she was singled out as a ”non-existing person or disabled person”.
She was returning from a wedding at the Thohoyandou Indoor Sports Centre when the officer stopped the taxi in which she was travelling.
He asked the driver why he had allowed a fat woman to occupy the front seat.
”I felt like my weight was a disability. I was really humiliated,” Tsanwani reportedly said.
The officer also ordered that she be arrested after she voiced her disapproval of his words.
She spent a few hours in a police cell and was released after paying R150 bail. – Sapa