African American Policy ForumVarmennettu tili

One morning her employer found her drowned in the pool. Maria, who was partially blind and was unable to swim, had appeared to have fallen into the pool to her death.

In terms of a national occupational injury compensation scheme, Sylvia Mahlangu, Maria’s daughter, should have been able to claim compensation from the fund for Maria’s untimely death.

However, a provision excluded the families of domestic workers from being able to claim compensation

The legacy of colonialism and apartheid means that in South Africa nearly three quarters of ALL domestic workers are Black women and it is the third largest employer of Black women in the country

Sylvia sued claiming that the exclusion of domestic workers from the fund was an infringement of their rights to social security; equal protection; human dignity; and constitutes indirect discrimination by race, sex and gender

The lawyers representing Sylvia’s claim expressly argued this as an intersectional claim as domestic workers are predominantly Black women, on the basis of race AND gender. The Court AGREED.

This innovative judgments shows the importance of using intersectionality to map the margins of systemic discrimination and as such affirms the importance of being able to teach and practice intersectionality in our social movements.

The judgment noted “adopting intersectionality... reveals how individual experiences vary according to multiple combinations of privilege, power, and vulnerability as structural elements of discrimination.”

The Court noted “the power of an intersectional approach lies in its capacity to shed light on the experiences and vulnerabilities of certain groups that have been erased or rendered invisible”

The global attacks on emancipatory tools like intersectionality and critical race theory, serves to legitimately imperil visionary judgments like that of the SA Constitutional Court

However Sylvia Mahlangu’s stunning court victory, which affirmed the dignity her mother was stripped of in her death, shows the interconnectedness of our fight for domestic workers across the world .

The social, historical and economic conditions that led to Maria Mahlangu’s precarity are no different to the interlocking pressures faced by domestic workers in the US

The path to victory that was made possible by this intersectional consciousness fortifies us in our fight against attempts to ban intersectionality in the US and across the world #truthbetold

It’s only by being able to understand history, talk back to power and conceptualize how inequality has deep and entrenched roots can we begin the work of pursuing social justice #truthbetold

As the judgment writes “these Black women are not “invisible” or “powerless”. On the contrary, they have a voice, and we are listening. These Black women are at the heart of our society”