The rape trial of Pastor Tim Omotoso has highlighted the plight of rape victims in South Africa
South Africans rallied around Cheryl Zondi this week after she gave a powerful testimony about how the pastor allegedly started sexually abusing her when she was just 14.
The pastor is facing charges of rape, kidnapping and human trafficking involving Cheryl more than 30 girls and women.
Some of Mzansi’s biggest stars have also been victims of rape.
They shared their stories over the past few years in the hopes of empowering other women.
Tumi Morake
Tumi Morake talked about her rape ordeal in 2017. She revealed that she lost her virginity at the age of 15 when she was raped by a boy on whom she had a crush.
“It was one of those weekends where we had a performance at one of the universities in the Free State and I had borrowed a belt from this boy I had a crush on. When I went to return it at his residence he locked the room and r@ped me. When I told him to stop he didn’t listen and when I tried to push him away he wouldn’t let me go,” she told Move! magazine.
The comedian said that she did not report the incident as she was afraid people would ask her what she was doing in his room in the first place. She says the incident left her broken.
Criselda Dudumashe
Radio presenter Criselda Dudumashe detailed in her book, You Are Never Alone, how she was r@ped at the age of seven. She says a family friend repeatedly r@ped her after school.
“Every day after school, bhut’Jabu (not his real name) would call me into the bedroom, look me in the face, put his fingers in my v#gina, ejaculate without penetrating, and once he was done, he would tell me how smelly I was, and that I must go clean myself,” she told the City Press in a 2016 interview.
The man told her nobody would believe her if she reported him. “Dad likes him. He is our community’s role model; his father is a priest. I don’t stand a chance because Dad will take his side,” she wrote in her book.
Amanda du-Pont
Actress Amanda du-Pont first spoke out about her r@pe in 2014. She revealed that an ex-boyfriend shared her r@pe story to help empower victims. She was r@ped by an ex-boyfriend.
“I’d refuse to have s-e-x as I was tired or didn’t feel like it but he’d force himself on me. By then I was falling out of love with him but I still didn’t have the guts to leave. R@pe in a relationship is horrible. You don’t understand that a person who claims to love you can violate you like that,” she told Real magazine.
Rami Chuene
Actress Rami Chuene was r@ped when she was six and eight years old by close family friends.
“By the time I found out what being a v!rgin means, it was already a situation where I thought ‘Ah that means I am not it’. I never got the opportunity to brag like other girls about ‘my first time’ or that I am v!rgin,” she said during an interview on Real Talk
Ntsiki Mazwai
Musician and poet Ntsiki Mazwai revealed the identity of her rapist while showing support for one of his victims. “I was also raped by Brickz,” she tweeted during the kwaito star’s rape trial.
Sipho ‘Brickz’ Ndlovu was sentenced to 15 years behind bars last year for raping a teenage girl in 2013. Ntsiki opened up about the emotions she felt after being raped in a song she released in late 2017.
“I finally acknowledged the tremendous amount of pain I have been carrying. I had a spill over. I wept… My only prayer is that Done To Me helps me and other victims purge the pain. I can’t write a happy song when I know I’m shattered inside. I wept from the pain till I wept from the joy of releasing it,” she wrote on Instagram
Source: All4women
