TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 3

Subsection 61

Women

409 While many women told the Commission of what happened to them, thousands came to the Commission to tell of what had happened to others – to their husbands, their children, their parents and their friends. These women tended to underplay the suffering that they had themselves experienced as witnesses and survivors of these tragedies.

410 As with children, the majority of women who were victims of gross human rights violations were not deliberately targeted but were caught in crossfire or were victims of indiscriminate attacks on party strongholds. The majority of victims in massacres of households were women. However, a number of women were specifically targeted for their political activism, their relation to male activists or in order to strike terror into the heart of communities. The Commission heard that both ANC and IFP supporters were guilty of extreme violence against women.

411 Although not easily quantifiable, a significant number of women told the Commission that they had been sexually abused in the name of politics.

412 Sixteen-year-old Ms Bajabulile Nzama [KZN/MR/094/DN] from Inanda told the Durban Hearing that she was abducted by ANC ‘comrades’ during 1990. Although she was non-partisan, her captors accused her of sympathising with the IFP because IFP supporters used to congregate near the bridge outside her house. She was taken to a house in B Section, Inanda.

That’s where they raped me. What is worse is that I was only sixteen years, and I was still a virgin, and I had told myself that I wanted to be like my mother. I used to admire my mother because she only went out with one man, that is my father, and I tried to save my virginity and this is what happened to me.

They raped me, the three guys. That was the end of my story. I got pregnant there. And when I came back home, I was pregnant and now I have a child whose father I don’t know.

There was a certain girl whom I found in that house and she was also abducted, she said she was from Richmond Farm. They used to come and rape us, both of us, and they will take us to a forest and in that area, there were a lot of bodies, dead bodies. And they used to tell us that this is what we will become. They used to assault us. They never used to give us food. They took my clothes, my money. They used to give us a bad porridge, which was black.

413 Bajabulile was kept locked up in the house and raped repeatedly over a period of one month. During this time, her captors told her to point out buses transporting people to IFP areas. One day they told her to point out the house of a certain well-known IFP supporter. That was the day she managed to escape. She reported the matter to a policeman with whom she was acquainted. Her case went to trial in 1992 but, according to Bajabulile:

The judge told me that I was just a concubine in that area, I am lying; they didn’t rape me.

414 Bajabulile still sees her attackers in her neighbourhood and one of them taunts her, saying that the child is his. She is unable to make friends because they ask who her child’s father is, and she cannot bring herself to speak of what happened to her..

415 In the rural area of Ndwedwe, not far from Inanda, forty-two year old Ms Bongini Besta Mbatha [KZN/NG/255/DN] was attacked by ANC supporters on 20 October 1991. They were looking for her nephew Mr Sipho Langa, an IFP member. When they could not find Sipho, they attacked her instead. She told the Commission:

They beat, stabbed and shot me. This happened in the forest where I was dragged. I was set on fire. I lost consciousness. It was dark when I gained consciousness. I crawled out of the forest, which took me a long time. Police came and took me to King Edward Hospital where I spent four months.

416 Ms Doris Ngubane [KZN/FS/226/DN], told the Commission how she was raped by four members of the AmaSinyora gang during March 1992. Ngubane and her husband Meshack had been married for thirty-two years and had seven children, one of whom, Xolani, was an active UDF/ANC member. They lived in K Section, KwaMashu, where there was a great deal of conflict at the time, with people being killed, houses set alight and residents fleeing their homes. On one such day in early March, Ms Ngubane (41) witnessed a group of IFP, KZP and AmaSinyora members attacking her neighbour’s home and killing a young man who lived there.

417 The next day Ms Ngubane and the two children who still lived with her left their home and joined the many other residents who had taken refuge at the Tholemandla School. Meshack Ngubane refused to leave the house, wanting to stay to look after their possessions. The following day Ms Ngubane returned home to collect bedding. As she was entering the yard, she was approached by four youths, one of whom was known to her as KZP member Justice Nkwanyana⁶⁸. The four youths were the same age as her youngest child.

418 They pushed her inside. Meshack Ngubane came out to see what was happening and the couple was pushed into the bedroom where they were repeatedly assaulted. Mr Ngubane was then forced into a chair.

419 Justice Nkwanyana tore Ms Ngubane’s pinafore with a knife and stabbed her on the feet. The others joined in the assault and she was held on the bed whilst Nkwanyana raped her in front of her husband. The others stood next to Mr Ngubane and, when he averted his eyes or bowed his head so that he could not see what was being done to his wife, they hit him and forced him to watch.

420 After Nkwanyana had finished raping her, he poured a jug of water over her vagina. The youths then took turns raping her, pouring water over her after each one had finished. When they hurt her and she cried out, they stabbed her and hit her all over her body with implements. They told her that they were doing this to her because her son was a UDF supporter. She eventually lost consciousness. The group then left, taking with them chickens from the yard.

421 Mr Ngubane left his unconscious wife and ran to get help. Their son Xolani arrived home and when he discovered what had happened to his mother he rushed to the Polyclinic to get an ambulance. The ambulance service refused to drive into K Section, but said that they could collect her from Malandela Road. Mr Ngubane, Xolani and four of Xolani’s friends together carried the unconscious woman to Malandela Road to meet the ambulance.

422 When Ms Ngubane regained consciousness in the hospital, she discovered that the doctors had had to perform a hysterectomy. She remained in hospital for three weeks. On being dismissed, she went to lay a charge at the KwaMashu police station. The sergeant who attended to her refused to take a statement or to lay a charge. Ms Ngubane told the Commission:

I don’t know how to describe the pain and anger I felt about this experience. When I went to KwaMashu police station, I was told that they do not take matters from the location. I don’t know why they did this because they were supposed to help us.

423 The family left K Section and went to live in a shack. Mr Ngubane became epileptic after his traumatic night and was not able to return to work. Ms Ngubane does not attend any functions where people gather and she wishes to live in a place where they are not known. She says that she is not able to socialise normally with people and prefers to stay within the confines of her shack.

It’s the most humiliating thing that can happen to anybody. These boys took away my dignity. I don’t have the words to express the kind of pain and anguish I experience. I think about this every day. My husband has since been mentally disturbed. Life’s very difficult.