People tend to have very, very short memories.

Last year, thousands took to the streets to say enough is enough in the wake of the murder of UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana, and a number of other high-profile murders.

Around the country, women asked ‘Am I next?’, and discussions around words like consent and respecting personal space dominated social media.

Whilst I have no doubt that some will try and dismiss the complaints of Sarah-Belgarion Van Niekerk as overly dramatic, the fact remains that women in this country have had enough of being touched inappropriately, or worse.

Sarah-Belgarion, who works as a waitress, shared a video on Facebook from this past Friday night.

In the post, she names the man in the video as model Reyn du Preez, stressing that “Men of SOUTH AFRICA stop touching us inappropriately!”

Here’s the video:

Sarah does say thanks to Reyn’s friends for stopping him when “he continued to insult and humiliate me after touching me inappropriately”, so a tiny victory there.

The fallout has been swift, with Boss Models SA releasing this statement on their Instagram account yesterday:

Having first made his Instagram account private, Reyn then changed to a public account.

At present, here’s what greets you if you swing past:

Standard model stuff, staring pensively off into the distance and all that.

Reyn did offer this apology via an Instagram Story, after the backlash continued to grow:

It wasn’t only Boss Models SA that took action, reports News24:

The German-based modelling agency MODELWERK, where Du Preez worked, issued a statement after hearing of the news on Monday.

“We have no tolerance for his unacceptable behaviour and condemn it in no uncertain terms. Upon being made aware of his actions yesterday, we terminated his representation with our agency – effective immediately.”

Reports suggest that Reyn is now overseas.

Here’s a quick guide when it comes to touching women without their consent – don’t.

Enough is enough.

[source:news24]