Transwoman seeks public apology from City
Assault video goes viral
After the incident, Frans 'Migub' /Goagoseb was charged with assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
After allegedly being assaulted and discriminated against by City of Windhoek employees last week, 24-year-old transwoman Ashanti Koos has demanded a public apology from the municipality.
Koos said she lives in fear every day as defamatory attacks made against her have become worse over the last three years.
In 2020, a video of her being assaulted went viral on social media.
Frans 'Migub' /Goagoseb beat Koos with a rod for allegedly “pretending to be a woman” so that she could defraud him of N$1 000.
In the video, he can be seen beating her several times while she sat helplessly tied to a chair in Gobabis.
/Goagoseb, who appeared in court in August, was charged with assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Irreversible damage
Koos revealed that in a separate homophobic attack earlier this year, a group of men attacked her at a bus stop and hit her over the head with an empty wine bottle, causing "irreversible damage" to her left eye.
"All these things have happened to me because of the video of my assault. Every day I have to relive the trauma as people still send me the video to ‘refresh my memory’,” she said.
“When City of Windhoek employees called me names, they called me 'Ou Migub' and it's all because of that video," she told Namibian Sun.
Koos said she reached out to the municipality to inform it of the incident and requested an apology, but was given the run-around by multiple staff members.
City spokesperson Lydia Amutenya said the municipality is aware of the alleged attacks by its employees, adding that there's no need to take it up with management since Koos already involved her lawyers.
"I advised Ashanti to formalise the complaint in writing and direct it to the office of our CEO for proper investigation.
“However, Ashanti informed me that the matter had already been taken up with their lawyers and I thus saw no need to formalise the complaint with the City at this point," she told Namibian Sun in a telephonic interview yesterday.
Koos said she lives in fear every day as defamatory attacks made against her have become worse over the last three years.
In 2020, a video of her being assaulted went viral on social media.
Frans 'Migub' /Goagoseb beat Koos with a rod for allegedly “pretending to be a woman” so that she could defraud him of N$1 000.
In the video, he can be seen beating her several times while she sat helplessly tied to a chair in Gobabis.
/Goagoseb, who appeared in court in August, was charged with assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Irreversible damage
Koos revealed that in a separate homophobic attack earlier this year, a group of men attacked her at a bus stop and hit her over the head with an empty wine bottle, causing "irreversible damage" to her left eye.
"All these things have happened to me because of the video of my assault. Every day I have to relive the trauma as people still send me the video to ‘refresh my memory’,” she said.
“When City of Windhoek employees called me names, they called me 'Ou Migub' and it's all because of that video," she told Namibian Sun.
Koos said she reached out to the municipality to inform it of the incident and requested an apology, but was given the run-around by multiple staff members.
City spokesperson Lydia Amutenya said the municipality is aware of the alleged attacks by its employees, adding that there's no need to take it up with management since Koos already involved her lawyers.
"I advised Ashanti to formalise the complaint in writing and direct it to the office of our CEO for proper investigation.
“However, Ashanti informed me that the matter had already been taken up with their lawyers and I thus saw no need to formalise the complaint with the City at this point," she told Namibian Sun in a telephonic interview yesterday.
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