UCT fires man for live-streaming colleague expressing breast milk

A University of Cape Town employee was fired on Wednesday for allegedly filming a colleague expressing breast milk.

Women's rights activists were outraged, saying the university should provide a safe place in which mothers could breast-feed and express milk.

This month a woman was reportedly expressing milk in an office at UCT when she noticed that a colleague was video-streaming her live. She blogged about how furious she was with the 38-year-old colleague, News24 reported.

"I'm so incredibly angry that the act of me providing food for my baby was sexualised in such a cowardly way ... that it was sexualised at all. I'm disgusted that we live in a world in which mothers, no matter how they choose to feed their children, are victimised for being vulnerable."

UCT spokesman Elijah Moholola said the university condemned the "very disturbing incident" in the "strongest possible terms".

The dismissed man appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court on Monday after the woman he filmed laid a crimen injuria charge. National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said he would appear in court again in August.

A former UCT employee who is a member of breast-feeding organisation La Leche League, said: "It's really shocking because moms feel vulnerable having to do that. I believe UCT could do a hell of a lot more to accommodate breast-feeding mothers."