WHEN SIPHOSETHU was raped she says she was forced into a world of shame and silence, as if she were the guilty one.
But the brave 21-year-old is no longer prepared to remain silent. She wants to tell her story and be heard.
SHE WANTS TO BE THE VOICE OF THE VOICELESS!
“I want to take my voice and my feelings back,” said Siphosethu Ndinisa.
“There are many women who go through this and I want to encourage them to speak out.”
Siphosethu, who is now 21 now, remembers the first time she was raped (when she was 12) as if it was yesterday.
She also remembers very well when she was raped for a second time in 2013.
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| I Am A RAPE SURVIVOR! |
“I’m no longer a victim. I’m a survivor,” she said, speaking to Daily Sun from her house in Lwandle, Strand, near Cape Town. She is a third-year Social Work student at Stellenboch University and the mother of an eight-month-old daughter.
“I want to encourage women to speak up. We should not fear being victimised or called names.”
Siphosethu believes it was wrong of her father to tell her to drop the charges because the rapist was close to the family.
“The charges were dropped and I was sent to East London. They told me I must clear my mind. I didn’t get counselling and kept everything inside,” she recalls.
A year after she returned to Cape Town, she was walking in the street in 2013 when she was grabbed and raped repeatedly for an entire night.
“I told the rapist I had been raped before but he didn’t listen. When I got home my mother was worried sick. I had never been out for a whole night. I told her what happened and she called my dad,” said Siphosethu, with tears running down her cheeks as she recalled the terrible time in her life – and the reaction of her father.
“I needed him more than I needed my mom. I wanted him to protect me and tell me everything was going to be okay. Instead he said he didn’t believe me.”
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| I Am A RAPE SURVIVOR! |
Warrant Officer Johan Arries confirmed a case of rape was opened but was later closed.
“I was investigating the case. Tests proved she was raped but we didn’t catch the suspect,” he said.
Nobahle Nogemani, a close friend of Siphosethu, said she hoped other people in the same situation would be helped because of Siphosethu’s story.
“She is open about it now and it doesn’t get to her anymore,” she said
Siphosethu received counselling after the second rape. She said she will only be completely healed once her relationship with her father is repaired and the perpetrators are behind bars.
Her father refused to talk about the incidents or take part in the interview.
