Gay kiss sparks R1.6m lawsuit

2004-10-13 22:42

Elsabé Brits

Cape Town - The High Court here has to decide whether a claim by a gay man, who alleges British Airways employees discriminated against him on the grounds of his sexual orientation, can continue.

The case, which could make human-rights history, starts on Thursday before Judge Dennis Davis.

Neal Vincent Potgieter of Green Point, his life partner and Potgieter's mother flew from Cape Town to London with British Airways in 2000.

According to the Transformative Human Rights Unit, a human-rights organisation, Potgieter and his partner kissed each other shortly after flight attendants woke them up "in a normal way that any person would have accepted had it happened between two heterosexual people".

Flight attendants asked Potgieter on two occasions not to kiss his partner.

Was fined in London court

The men regarded the requests as discriminatory as heterosexual people on the flight were not asked to refrain from affectionate behaviour towards each other.

An altercation broke out, and the two men refused to fasten their seat belts during landing.

They were arrested on arrival, and Potgieter was held for three days in London for breaking aviation law. He was fined £4 000 (about R26 400 at today's rate).

The whole issue cost him R1.5m, according to the Transformative Human Rights Unit.

If the Cape Town High Court decides he can continue with his case, he plans to claim R1.6m in damages from British Airways.

British Airways claims the South African constitution's stipulations are not valid on their flights in terms of the Warsaw Convention of 1929.

They will argue that these are the only grounds on which one can institute a claim against them, and Potgieter begs to differ.

Davis has to decide whether the convention places a limitation on the claim or not.

- Die Burger