Stop letting politicians destroy women

Over the weekend, social media was abuzz with the story of a young woman in KwaZuluNatal who has been exposed for having posed as a medical intern without having obtained a medical qualification.

Over the past few years, she had worked in five different hospitals in the province, performing medical procedures on patients, including stitching those with moderate injuries.

The story is still trending, with thousands of users vilifying her for the deception.

And they have every reason to — what the young woman did was wrong and should not be left unpunished, because people’s lives were placed in danger.

But there is another angle to this story which did not receive the attention that it should have received — an angle so heinous that it puts into question many things about the actual story.

The young woman, it turns out, was a mistress of a powerful ANC politician who is currently serving as a member of the KZN provincial legislature.

According to reports, her troubles began when she revealed that she had been impregnated by the man.

He allegedly demanded that she have an abortion and when she refused, he had her jailed for a few months.

It was when she went public about this that the story about her fake qualifications came out.

Her plight inspired another young woman to also speak out about the same politician.

She too had been his mistress and she too had fallen pregnant with his child.

And just like the other young woman, the politician had allegedly demanded that she have an abortion.

She refused, at which point he then took her to a consultation with a doctor under the pretence of checking on the foetus. The doctor she was taken to is also a leader of the ANC in KZN and a mayor in one of the local municipalities.

The woman alleges that something was administered to her that forced her to have a miscarriage. She also alleges that the man was physically and mentally abusive.

The timing of the article about the woman’s fake qualifications is especially important, because it was just after she spoke out about her ordeal.

The story was exposed to cast aspersions on her character and make us question the legitimacy of her claims.

But we must refuse to have our attention diverted from two important issues.

First, that the young woman was able to work in five different hospitals in KZN is indicative of serious administrative weaknesses in the vetting system of these hospitals.

There was no background done, which begs the question: how many more people are working in hospitals without the right qualifications?

Or could it be that this very connected and powerful politician facilitated her employment?

As the story unfolds and members of the ANC take their comrade’s side, we must refuse to participate in the young woman’s destruction.

Sarah Mokwebo, a feminist intellectual, puts it profoundly when she says: “Patriarchy isn ’ t only about the exclusion of marginalised people, it is also about discrediting them.

“It is about their portrayal and the narrative created and sustained about them ... so that you are then deemed worthy of victimisation and injustice”.

This is true of how those with power wield it: through the dehumanisation and discrediting of others.

Look through history books and you will see a pattern with genocides — they all begin with discrediting and dehumanising those who are later persecuted.

The Rwanda genocide was enabled by the spreading of propaganda and the labelling of Tutsi people as cockroaches.

The recent genocide of the Rohingya people in Rakhine state in Myanmar is being facilitated by them being labelled “Bengali”, foreigners who have no legitimate claim to Myanmar citizenship.

This is how powerful people persecute their victims: by discrediting them. And this is exactly what is being done in the story of the ANC MPL.

The bigger crime here is the abuse of women and of power that is being carried out by this man.

The bigger crime is a provincial government that is incompetent, and which by failing to vet an employee, placed lives in danger.

This is the story, and we must not be detracted from it.