WARNING: NO CROSSING AFTER 8PM

MHLANGATANE – “After 8pm, no muntu!”

This is an inscription by a distressed community that has witnessed too many rape cases in their midst.
The message was formulated after a hike in the number of rape cases within the communities around Nkomazi River.
The community resorted to inscribing the warning on the bridge after an increase in sexual violations at night at or near the bridge.

In the east and west sides of the bridge that allows traffic between Sihhoye and those coming from Mangweni Clinic and Tingonini to connect with Sihhoye, are sugar fields.
Also, there is a thicket, which makes it a hiding spot for would be perpetrators of sexual violence.

Recently a seven-year old pupil was abducted on her way to school and forced to walk over five kilometres before she was sexually violated. This ordeal happened at Tingonini, a small community harboured by lush fields of sugar cane. 
The green that symbolises life and wealth in the village shelters females who live in fear each day they wake up as rape is rife in the area.
The distance the child walked, according to community members was easy to ascertain as along the way, there were tracks that reflected that she was walking with an adult on the side.
A fort night after the first sexual violation of the minor, another pupil was raped in March, 2018.

The atrocious act happened in a brutal manner according to the head teacher of the local school as the pupil was raped in front of nine other males.
The men are said to have made a human shield while the pupil and the perpetrator were in the centre.

Nomthandazo Shongwe, 39, of Emkhwakhweni in Sihhoye, said she relocated to Sihhoye in 2004 where she found that rape was endemic. This was attested to by Ekujabuleni Primary School head teacher, Sam Ndzabukelwako.
The head teacher was close to tears when narrating the endemic of sexual assault on the minors. “This was easy to view as it had rained so, the foot prints were visible on the ground.”

The head teacher noted that this gory experience was so devastating as the child was not only sexually violated and leaving her with mental scars that would last a lifetime but, she was also left wandering in the sugar cane fields.
He said if it were not for sheer luck that a tractor driver had an errand within the fields, the child may have never been found.

This, he said, was due to the fact that the sugar cane was long and dwarfing her, which in turn made it impossible for her to find her way back to school.
“The child, if not found by the tractor driver would have wandered towards Nkomazi River and maybe even add up to the statistics of the many people killed by crocodiles.”
The troubled head teacher said rape on its own was brutal as it haunts the survivor for the rest of her life.

Ndzabukelwako said sexual violence could have psychological, emotional, and physical effects on a survivor and such effects were not always easy to deal with.
Following the attacks, he said they reported the ordeal to the police who opened a case but to date there had been no arrest and it was troubling the school’s administration as they lived in fear without knowing who would be the next victim.

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