The family of a mentally ill Manenberg ouma are furious with the Good political party, saying they humiliated and mocked her by forcing her to wear one of their T-shirts.
The incident involving Jocelyn Isaacs, 54, was captured on video and has since gone viral on social media.
Relatives of the woman fondly known as Aunty Dawn say they were horrified to see the video taken in Mitchells Plain.
Her sister Nicolette Heuvel, 50, says Aunty Dawn suffers from dementia and went missing from her home on Wednesday morning.
“We heard she was in Town Centre and went to look.
“She can hardly talk and we don’t even know how she got to Mitchells Plain. When we couldn’t find her we opened a case at the police station,” says Nicolette.
Then on Thursday night they got word that Aunty Dawn was at Lentegeur police station.
“That is when she was wearing this orange Good T-shirt and underneath she had on a DA T-shirt,” says Nicolette.
In the video, Aunty Dawn is seen surrounded by Good party members who put the orange T-shirt on her as she tries to walk away, her bra dangling from the side.
Her shocked family contacted the Daily Voice after seeing the video.
Party members ‘forcing Jocelyn to wear Good T-shirt’. Video supplied
Her 26-year-old niece, who asked not to be named, says: “I am very disappointed with the Good party, to see how they humiliated my aunt.
“She doesn’t look well and they didn’t even take a second to ask her if she needed assistance.
“What they did is just wrong as a political party, putting clothes on someone without her consent.”
Good mayoral candidate, Brett Herron, claims Aunty Dawn asked for a T-shirt.
“I saw the video and just like everyone else, I thought it looked inappropriate,” he says.
“I spoke to the Mitchells Plain campaign manager and their version is that the woman asked for a T-shirt and the guy in the black is Pastor Stephen Noble.
“We did not have any spare T-shirts and she kept insisting she wanted a T-shirt so he took his own T-shirt off and gave it to her.”
Noble confirms this and says Aunty Dawn appeared gesuip to him: “I thought she had a drink in but didn’t know she is mentally ill as she was working as a car guard.”
The ouma’s angry family says this is impossible as she can hardly string a sentence together.
Herron accused the DA of sharing the video in a misleading way.
“If the family is insulted...I will go visit them and apologise on behalf of Good.
“What is problematic is the abuse by the DA with this video in sharing it in a way that is dishonest.”
But DA mayoral candidate, Geordin-Hill Lewis, says Herron is a liegbek and should apologise.
“It is unacceptable for any person’s dignity to be infringed upon to further a political agenda.
“The fact that Good and Mr Herron have not done so (apologised)... I won’t even dignify their lies by responding to them.”