A transgender inmate is hauling the Department of Correctional Services to court after she says she was misgendered, bullied and refused access to gender-affirming healthcare by officials at the Johannesburg Prison.

News24 reports that Nthabiseng Mokoena has lodged an Equality Court case against the department, which will be heard later this week.

In 2010, Mokoena was arrested on a charges – including murder and robbery – for which she was found guilty and sentenced to life behind bars.

In court papers, she said she started questioning her gender identity when she was seven.

'Prior to being incarcerated, I wanted to take the necessary steps to affirm my gender identity as a woman … However, I could not complete the process,’ she said.

Mokoena said she has experienced ‘victimisation and harassment’ in prison.

Officials misgendered her and ‘refused to acknowledge and respect’ her gender identity. Mokoena said, she was being forced to ‘conform to social expectations of the male gender identity’ and had been refused a female prisoner’s uniform.

She had requested hormone replacement therapy but was denied on the basis it was considered ‘cosmetic and against their policy.’

Mokoena, who is being represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, wants an order declaring the conduct she had been subjected to was ‘unfair discrimination’ and ‘harassment.’

She also wants prison authorities to order them to provide her with gender-affirming treatment.

Mokoena also wants the department to help her legally transition by making the relevant changes to her identity documents and officially changing her name.

According to News24, she also wants to be accommodated ‘in a single cell or in the same cell with inmates of the same gender identity’.

Correctional Services Commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale said the department could not accommodate Mokoena in a single cell because of overcrowding and she could not be placed with another transgender person because there were none.

He denied her claims that she was being unfairly discriminated against and harassed and refused visits.

The Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services and NGO Access Chapter 2 have been admitted as amici curiae in the case which will be heard in the Equality Court, sitting in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) on Friday.

Full News24 report