The Equality Court has found a Cape Town man guilty of hate speech and harassment after he launched a racist verbal attack on a nurse at Mediclinic Cape Town, calling her the k-word and a “b…h” because she made him wait for treatment for a minor injury.
In a scathing judgment delivered on 9 December, Judge Daniel Thulare described the respondent, Mark Preyer, as a man with a “fragile ego” and a “superiority complex” who resorted to vile racism when his demands for special treatment were refused.
The incident occurred on 19 February 2024. Preyer arrived at the hospital’s emergency entrance on a motorcycle, demanding immediate attention for a wound on his foot. According to testimony from the hospital receptionist, Nobulali Nkayi, Preyer was aggressive from the moment he arrived, forcefully trying to open the doors and refusing to wait in the queue despite being told the trauma unit was busy.
Preyer was assessed in the triage room by Agreement Funeka Mayongo, a nurse with years of experience. Mayongo examined Preyer’s injury – a minor cut on his foot – and classified him as a “yellow” code, meaning his case was not an emergency priority.
Angered by the assessment and the administrative questions, Preyer unleashed a torrent of abuse. Mayongo testified that Preyer called her a “b…h,” a “f…..g b…h,” and told her she was “not supposed to be a nurse.” 61He then escalated to explicit racial and misogynistic slurs, calling her the k-word, and using the Afrikaans slur “p..s” in reference to her and her mother.
Judge Thulare rejected Preyer’s version of events as a “cock and bull story.”
Mayongo left the room in tears, described by colleagues as “visibly distressed” and “distraught.”
In court, Preyer denied using the K-word, though he admitted to calling Mayongo the other words in a moment of “shock and agitation.”
He claimed he had been bleeding “profusely” from a fresh injury sustained in traffic and was in extreme shock and pain.
Preyer alleged that the hospital staff were “hostile” and “disinterested,” and that he was the victim of “reverse racism.” He claimed the nurse looked at him with “naked hostility” and that he felt he was being deliberately mistreated.
Judge Thulare rejected Preyer’s version of events as a “cock and bull story.”
The court accepted the testimony of security supervisor Nkosinathi Skitasi, who testified that Preyer had casually admitted to him in the parking lot that the wound was days old.
The judge noted that Preyer’s injury was minor and not actively bleeding, debunking his claim of “profuse bleeding” by citing basic biology regarding capillaries versus arteries.
“Preyer went to the hospital driven by a superiority complex,” Judge Thulare found. “He approached the hospital with a feeling that he deserved privileges and special treatment… He thought that he was better than others and did not deserve to wait in the queue.”
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The judgment painted a picture of a man who could not handle being subject to the authority of an African nurse. “He looked down on Mayongo. She was not important. She was not a doctor… 7
The court found that the use of the k-word clearly constituted hate speech under Section 10(1) of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (PEPUDA), as it propagates hatred and incites harm based on race.
The other derogatory words were ruled to be harassment under Section 11, intended to demean and humiliate.
The Equality Court declared that Mark Preyer had contravened both the prohibition of hate speech and the prohibition of harassment.
Preyer was ordered to pay the costs of the application, including the wasted costs for a previous postponement. The parties have been ordered to arrange a date within 10 days to determine an appropriate remedy for the damages caused to Mayongo.
