EC farmer defends his decision to place woman in a cage

A 41-year-old farmer from Cradock has defended himself from a social media backlash following the circulation of a picture of a black woman in a cage at the back of his Isuzu bakkie.  

Johan Erasmus said he was troubled by social media comments slamming the incident as racist as he claims that the woman had decided to get inside the cage. However, he confirmed that there was space in the passenger seat in the front of the car.

A picture of his Isuzu bakkie showing the woman in the cage caused a social media storm this morning.

DispatchLIVE has so far been unable to track the unidentified woman. According to Erasmus, he was just helping out as she gave the woman a lift from a farm to drop her off in town where she was going to a clinic.

“The right story is ... first that thing is not a cage but a sheep cage that we use to weight lambs,” said Ersamus. “I was on the farm and that lady asked me for a lift into town and she on her own got into that thing and I dropped her in town.

“I am not happy about that because I am trying to help people but how this thing is going is like I did something wrong.”

Erasmus claims that “the sheep cage” fills the entire back of the bakkie which could have been the reason the woman was inside the cage.

But the picture tells a different story as it show that there was enough space around the cage.

Former DA leader Helen Zille tweeted that the matter was in the hands of the police.

But Cradock police spokesman Louis Stone could not confirm this when contacted by DispatchLIVE this morning.