MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The organisers of the Mnr & Mej Hartenbos Seefront Kompetisie have issued a cease-and-desist notice following negative social media commentary regarding one of the winners of a beach competition held on 23 December.
Organiser Karen Lensing, founder of Crawlers and Crowns, clarified that the Mnr & Mej ATKV Hartenbos pageant, held on 29 December, is a formal pageant event and is entirely separate from the annual Seefront beach competition.
“The 23 December event is an informal, fun community competition that we have hosted annually for the past eight years. It is not a formal pageant,” Lensing said.
The participant at the centre of the negative commentary, Iveno Jansen (20) competed in and won the Mej 18-plus category of the beach competition. Jansen, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them* pronouns, said their colleagues at their workplace had entered Jansen into the contest.
"It has been two years since I modelled so when my colleagues told me they wanted to enter me into the competition, I was excited."
Jansen said they even made their outfit for the contest.
"I sewed my mother's tablecloth onto a bathing suit I already had," said Jansen.
"When I walked out in my outfit that day, I saw people were looking at me. I was a bit uncomfortable but then I heard the crowd and my colleagues cheer for me," Jansen said.
Video footage of Jansen at the event shows them modelling at the Seefront while spectators clap and cheer loudly. More cheering can be heard when Jansen is crowned.
Jansen said they felt confident and knew they would win the category because of that confidence, their outfit and their uniqueness.
They said they posted the video of their modelling and subsequent crowning on TikTok. After two days of being online, the video had over 57 000 views and a slew of negative comments.
"I had to close the comments because every minute of the day, I was receiving notifications of comments on the post. some people congratulated me and left cute comments but they were mostly negative."
Jansen said that as of today, there are over 112 000 views on the video.
This video has been shared on other social media platforms and local Mossel Bay and Hartenbos Facebook groups.
According to the organisers, these posts incorrectly linked the beach competition to the separate Mnr & Mej ATKV Hartenbos pageant.
As a result, a cease-and-desist notice was issued calling on the public to stop publishing or sharing defamatory, harassing or hateful content directed at the Mnr & Mej Hartenbos Seefront Kompetisie, its organisers or participants and also the Mnr & Mej ATKV Hartenbos pageant.
“People are entitled to opinions, but harassment, hate speech and threats are unacceptable and may be unlawful,” Lensing said.
The notice states that failure to comply may result in legal action through the Equality Court or, where applicable, the South African Police Service.
Lensing added that South African law prohibits unfair discrimination on the basis of gender identity and that all participants were judged according to the same criteria.
In response to the negative comments, Jansen said that in life, people make choices and questioned why people would choose to be hateful toward someone they do not even know.
"Just let me live my life. I am living my truth. I wanted to celebrate my win with that post but I feel like all these comments have made it impossible for me to do that," they said.
Hartenbos Seefront management had the following to say: "We as Hartenbos Seefront have no comment regarding the matter. We (Hartenbos Seefront) are not the organisers nor the judges for the pageant and have no authority to overrule the law of South Africa regarding discrimination; we were simply the venue,".
ATKV Hartenbos was asked for comment. It will be added to this article once it has been received.
* They/them pronouns: They, them, and theirs are gender-neutral pronouns that can be used when referring to people individually.
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