Nearly four years after her picture became a viral internet meme, this Manenberg woman says she is gatvol of people using her photo to mock coloured women, Sassa beneficiaries and tikkoppe.
The iconic picture captured by former Daily Voice photographer, Brendan Magaar, during a riot in Manenberg in November 2016, has been reproduced in hundreds of social media jokes.
The picture of Rafiqah Saayman, 31, wearing a grey T-shirt and her friend Simoneh Prins, 30, in a pink t-shirt, scowling at the police gets shared each time Sassa payments are late.
But Rafiqah says it’s no laughing matter, as her bestie sadly passed away due to illness last year.
Now she is left to face the jokes on her own and she worries about its impact on her children, who she says are being bullied for it.
On the day the picture was taken, residents in Renoster Walk and Manenberg cops clashed after Captain Ettienne Conradie was shot by a skollie while arresting suspects for drugs.
Rafiqah says residents became kwaad when cops opened fire on them. The gunman escaped and Conradie was rushed to hospital.
She says she was standing next to Simoneh and was skelling cops when the photo was snapped.
“The next day, the one cop came here and laughed at my picture in the paper, the next thing it was all over and people soema started calling us tikkoppe and Sassa queens and all sorts of stuff,” she says.
Rafiqah says she gets embarrassed each time a new meme is made and her children come home in tears.
“Their friends make fun of them and I would like for the use of this picture to come to an end,” the mom says.
“The photo (memes) is about tik and people going to the kantien (shebeen) and different types of things that I am not involved in.”
Rafiqah says she doesn’t suip or smoke tik, and remembers how upset her friend used to get about the memes.
“When she was alive, Simoneh always used to ask me what do I think of the n ***ers who make fun of us, because we look like fools.
“I am no celebrity, they get money when their pictures are used. I am begging people to stop and think about my children.”
Photographer Brendan says he had no idea that his photo would be so popular: “I have seen most of the memes that came out because of that picture. I didn’t think it would end up that way.
“I was just doing my job and when I was filing the picture, I thought it was quite a funny expression on her (Simoneh’s) face.
“I wanted to portray the anger and the disappointment and this just happened to be an emotional look which also turned out to be quite a disgusted look.
“It is the typical skel aunty look that we don’t always capture.”