The bedroom where Tshepang Musi nearly died

“I loved him more than I even loved myself. This incident happened when we were at his house after a wedding,” says Tshepang Musi.

“His house was a house with two bedrooms. He asked me why his cousins were talking to me at the wedding. Then he left it.

“He went to the kitchen to drink some alcohol. It was like that. He would go to the kitchen, then come back to the bedroom and ask me something.

“He asked me to drop out of school. I was doing a human resources and management course. I wanted to empower myself so that one day I’ll be able to leave him. I felt like I couldn’t leave because I was still a student. The money I was receiving at home was not enough.

“So I said no. He made me shoot a video of myself naked. I was even crying in the video. He kept telling me to drop out of school and I said no.

“He started to hit me and I fell to the ground. Then he started kicking me until I couldn’t stand up.

“When I tried to get up, he took a taser that he had and placed it on my neck and that’s when everything went blank. I don’t remember what happened.

“I woke up in hospital a day or two later. A lady had found me in a cemetery wrapped in a sheet. He thought he had killed me. He wrapped my body in a white sheet and put me in the boot of his car. He drove to the cemetery.

“When I woke up the nurse said: ‘You’ve been raped. We found three different kinds of semen.’

“I don’t know what happened but I was raped by men I don’t even know. She told me I had an STI [sexually transmitted infection] and they thought I might be pregnant but they would do further tests.

“I am a very strong woman. After that, I never saw him again. The police found him and he was charged with assault and attempted murder. Before he could complete his sentence, he died. He died on my birthday in November 2017. They said it was heart failure.”