'No one sits in the front seat with umlungu' - caged woman, family speak

The family of the pregnant Linda Steenkamp, who made headlines last week when a picture of her inside a cage on the back of a farmer’s bakkie caused a social media storm, says they have been hurt by what happened and just want the matter to pass.

A shy Linda, who is expecting her third child, said the stress brought about by the storm over the incident was not good for her unborn child.

She does not want to talk about it any more, and seeing her picture all over the media makes her sad.

“I just want this thing to be over. I climbed into that cage myself because no one sits in the front seat with umlungu [white person],” she said.

Her boyfriend Bonga Kondile, 35, who lives with Steenkamp, 27, at Zuurfontein Farm, located 65km from Cradock – told the Daily Dispatch that “the humiliation” suffered by his four-months pregnant partner was unfathomable.

• WATCH: Woman at centre of 'bakkie cage' saga speaks outLinda Steenkamp‚ the woman who sat in a sheep cage at the back of a bakkie‚ went on camera to say she chose to sit there because it was extremely hot‚ she needed a lift and wanted to sit in the wind. 

He said such an incident was not unexpected, especially in an area where farm workers still referred to their employers as “baas” – as Steenkamp did in the video shot by farmer Johan Erasmus’s wife, Leta, last week in an attempt to quell the storm.

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