RAPED UNESWA STUDENT DENIED JUSTICE

“I showered, trying to scrub all of You on me...Your hands are imprinted on me, scarring me forever, and cannot be erased...Your voice lingers in my ears…. pounding in my heart still... Months after living on continuous rerun... a bad daydream that will not leave... Flashbacks and triggers... Simple things set me off... I feel insane in a sane world...” - part of a poem by a rape survivor.

Rape is legally described as, ‘penetration - no matter how slight - of the vagina, or anus, with any body part or object...without the consent of the victim’. The terms ‘rape’ and ‘sexual assault’ are sometimes interchanged. The latter is often described as, ‘unwanted sexual contact that stops short of rape or attempted rape. This includes sexual touching and fondling...’
As much as some societies, more often than not, would rather brush things under the carpet (the sickening ‘tibi tendlu’ syndrome comes to mind) than confront this dastardly and most diabolical of acts of the violation of human bodies, the fact remains that it is a brutal crime perpetrated by vile monsters erroneously calling themselves males. In spite of global awareness persistently and fervently raised by concerned stakeholders like women’s rights activists, a lasting solution against this evil still eludes members of concerned society.

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I remember vividly, (as if it happened yesterday) reading through, with mounting anger, a perplexing and heart-wrenching article in the Times SUNDAY, headlined, ‘PRINCE, FRIEND ACCUSED OF UNESWA STUDENT RAPE...’ The day was the 12th of September, 2018 - a bright, sunny and promising of good tidings to come, Sunday morning. I looked forward to reading through my favourite Sunday read. Lo and behold! Right in front of my disbelieving eyes, the article detailed how an alleged member of the extended royal family and his friend were accused of kidnapping, drugging and raping a teenage UNESWA student!

 The prince was alleged to be a son to one of the late senior princes. His alleged accomplice was alleged to be a classmate of the accused. My poor-man’s, hard-earned, Sunday breakfast turned cold by my side as I read through the emotionally excruciating student’s rape ordeal at the alleged hands of human predators who are wretched failures at practising a cultured and moral etiquette of properly courting a woman, preferring instead, to resort to cowardly and brutal tactics of satisfying their primate, barbaric, sexual urges and lustful tendencies, waylaying innocent, vulnerable, young women, brutally desecrating their sacred bodies.

According to the article, it narrated how the 19-year-old UNESWA student was, that is, according to a source close to the matter, allegedly kidnapped by the ‘duo while she was enjoying proceedings of an opening bash which was held at the Kwaluseni Campus from Friday night to Saturday morning...’ The source, according to the article, alleged that while the student was enjoying herself at ‘around 3am., one of her male classmates allegedly told her that there was untfwanenkhosi (a prince) who wanted to get to know her...’.

The rest, as they say, is history.

She was allegedly kidnapped, drugged, and taken to one of the guest houses in the outskirts of the city of Manzini. Even though she allegedly could not remember events ‘leading to the incident, she allegedly recalled being assisted by the prince and her classmate to alight from the car into a room in one of the guest houses situated in the outskirts of the city of Manzini’. When questioned after the rape incident, she allegedly told the police that she remembered being allegedly raped by ‘the prince and her classmate at the guesthouse...’ Continuing, she alleged that; “The prince first had sexual intercourse with me and my classmate was next...I was a bit sedated and could not even stop them or defend myself...”

Fast forward to around November, 2018 – two months after the alleged, brutal incident...with no arrests forthcoming, the Times of Eswatini reported in a midweek article about very disturbing and intriguing news concerning alleged moves being made to sweet-talk the allegedly violated, young woman to drop the case in exchange for an overseas scholarship! Intriguing and preposterous, indeed!

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According to the article, ‘while she was in the crucial stage of dealing with probable, nervous breakdown challenges and lifelong consequences of rape, three carrot-dangling strangers visited her last month at the Kwaluseni campus of the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). Zodwa (not her real name), said they claimed to be representing the male student. On the other hand, she said other people claiming to be representing the royal family member reportedly asked Mzwandile Dlamini, a Manzini-based attorney, to advise her to drop the case in exchange for the same offer’.

“She said she was hurting because her assailants took turns to rape her. She was terribly aggrieved that one of her alleged assailants was known to her, as they were doing the same course at the university.” According to the article, she said she was ‘terribly hurt because she did not consent to this sexual intercourse, as a result, she said she was still trying to recover from the trauma. She said it was disheartening to see her male colleague every day. Seeing him on a daily basis in the lecture room, Zodwa said she got traumatised.

Asked if the male student was remorseful, she said he was not as he was allegedly bragging about what he did to her. “He bragged to some of my colleagues at the university, mainly males, that he had finally indulged in sexual intercourse with me,” she said.
Yours truly, remembers at the time, writing some articles, conveying the public’s outrage at the alleged rape of the student and the slow-turning wheels of justice from the police who are supposed to be “protectors” of the public, in speedily concluding investigations which would have led to the arresting of the alleged perpetrators.
 As public anger increasingly mounted over the allegations of rape, a group of activists marched on to the Manzini Regional Police Headquarters calling for the arrest of the prince and his friend. Their concerns, according to media reports, were ‘fuelled by what they said was deafening silence over this incident.

frustration

‘They further expressed sheer frustration with the fact that no one had been arrested after the alleged rape…’. Again, a handful of concerned, women activists sometime later, also approached police hierarchy at the Mbabane Police Headquarters to raise their concerns and ire at the apparent dragging of feet by the police in bringing to justice the alleged perpetrators. As it is more often usual than not, the matter died a natural death and the alleged perpetrators no doubt, continued with their normal lives. Who knows... maybe to claim other rape trophies?

Like most topical news of any period, the brutal rape incident was overtaken by other pressing news. For those of us with long memories, just like the so-called, long arm of the law, who yearn for and are proponents of fair justice – not the selective, with ‘eyes’ and lopsided type of justice – the alleged rape ordeal remains alive to this day in our hearts. Just as one Funekile Gule, formerly an employee of the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) - another young woman who was at the prime of her life - had it mauled and snuffed out, suspiciously by a faceless murderer/s, many of us still grieve for her – as well as this young, UNESWA student. The family never found closure. Why...we ask? Why do our police – the so-called pubic protectors - seem to be experts at dragging our feet in closing some cases that are allegedly implicating high profile and connected individuals? Is it because the lives of so many of us do not matter because we are regarded as timfucuta, small Joes or downright, illegitimate citizens? What does our Constitution say about protecting the right to life of individuals, their dignity, and protection from inhumane acts perpetrated by anyone, irrespective of status?

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We have also read of inhumane and brutal acts of torture and killings allegedly perpetrated by some law-enforcement agencies’ members on innocent citizens countless times in the past. Alleged incidents of use of excessive force were (and continue) never condemned by political heavyweights in the past and even as recent as during the currently topical enforcement of COVID-19 regulations.

We ask once more again – kantsi tsine luntfu sibabani? Were we all not created in the ‘likeness and image’ of One Loving but Avenging God, who abhors injustice and will very soon call each one of us – be it the police, rapists, thugs, politicians, and every other human being who lived (and will be living) under the sun – to account during the inevitable, coming Judgment Day, for our every deed, good or bad, committed on this sinful and broken world. Do not fool yourself…judgment is coming. No one, not even one, shall escape it.

To the young UNESWA student, we say: even if you cannot find justice and closure in this broken and discriminative world, even though you may cry for the return of your most personal and prized undergarments in vain, please rest assured that in the Coming World, you and many others who were brutalised by those with fleeting power, your plight will be avenged by a God who hates injustice. In the meantime, while the good wail and lament, the bad and the ugly continue to run rough shod over the rights of others. As the learned say...no condition is permanent, they will have their say. Shalom!

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