The year was 2005 and I was studying around Vaal, Gauteng.
When I moved to a new house, I noticed that my neighbor would always stare at me but I just brushed it off. He was white, in his early 40`s and by the way he dressed, I assumed he was in the corporate world. We never greeted each other. One day I went out to answer my phone and he was on the fence. When he saw me, he took out his penis and started masturbating. I was so scared and ran into the house.
I called the police once (with my housemates ) because he was exposing himself to all of us on a regular basis. They told us that "they don't want his wife to know".After that day, every time we would call to report him, they wouldn't show up. The worse part was that often he would be holding his kid on his lap and when I came out of the house, he would masturbate, with his kid still on his lap. My fear has always been that he would hurt his child but what could we do? The police were ignoring us and protecting him.
Every time we were fed up with his behavior and tried to get the police's attention, we would play loud music because we knew his wife would call the police. When they show up and we relay the story to them, they would laugh at us as if it's a joke. We told them about the incident with his child but they refuse to listen.
Their behavior changed the way I see men forever.
#MeToo
Nthaby Serobedi
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