ASSAULTED AGAIN

Thapelo Matshameko, a transgender woman who was attacked at Trekkers night club in Gaborone last year was last week beaten to a pulp by three men that told her she should stop acting like a man and be a ‘proper’ woman. Narrating the incident to The Midweek Sun Matshameko 25, says she was from a colleague’s baby shower with other colleagues when she asked them to stop by BBS mall so that she could grab something to eat. The incident happened around 1am, she says. On her way to Chicken Twist, a 24-hour food outlet, she was met by a man who immediately took her wig off and started insulting her. “He said that gays were irritating him and that when they won their criminalisation case against government, they were bound to cause havoc in the country by behaving like women. “A re re rile re baakanya lehatshe go riana re batla go le tlhakatlhakanya ka bo-gay jwa rona,” she says, adding that she left him and picked her wig from the floor and wore it again. As she entered the restaurant, two more men came in and joined in, kicking and slapping her calling her setlhodi sa gay. “As they were kicking me, they kept saying I should stop pretending to be a woman and be a real man. No one inside the restaurant helped until I was left lying on the floor,” she says, adding however that a male customer then took her to Broadhurst Police Station. That same morning, the trio was found at a shebeen in Maruapula and they were taken to a police station, according to Matshameko. She says that initially the men tried to deny ever beating her until the police beat them up. “After two days, they came to my workplace, saying they were sorry but I just ignored them,” she says.In response, Broadhurst Police Station Commander Obusitswe Lokae, said he was not aware of the case, stating that he would inquire from his officers. Chicken Twist employee Charity Bayani says she saw everything that happened inside the restaurant. She says she was afraid that the men were going to kill Matshameko. “I dialled 999 but the police didn’t answer. She was screaming but none of us could help because we were afraid of the angry guys,” she says. Another employee Thabiso Medupe says the attackers removed Matshameko’s wig and kicked her several times on the head. “They left her lying on the floor,” he says. Meanwhile, Matshameko says she was experiencing backache and headache from the assault. Last year November, a 43-second long video of Matshameko lying on the floor behind a car after being assaulted was circulating on social media with a group of people exposing her private parts and saying she needs to be exposed on Facebook. One of the men slapped her bare buttocks, saying that she was not a woman. They also removed her wig. The video ended with her crying. A trans woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth.