Abuse of power and women
Former parliamentary intern tells of harrowing ordeal after rape attempt
THE REVEREND Thoko Tshangela, 44, lies in her Qunu pastoral home, not adorned in any form of lingerie, but in pyjamas. An unidentified male, reeking of alcohol finds his way into her bedroom, undresses her and forces himself upon her.
He leave behind a distraught reverend who has, since that Saturday, November 16, taken it upon herself to speak publicly about this ordeal and how “men must stop seeing women as sex objects”.
At the I’solezwe lesiXhosa newspaper we regularly received WhatsApp messages alerting us to the rape of one elderly woman or another. Incidents happened in the villages of Centane, others in Willowvale, Mqanduli while they were more prevalent in Mt Fletcher and the Alfred Nzo district.
Most touching was the ordeal of an elderly woman who, on a daily basis, knew her four young rapists would come to her house every night. The village knew about this, but the boys were feared. We alerted the police.
There was also another case in which an elderly women bit off her rapist’s tongue. Another cut off her assailant’s penis.
When confronted with these incidents, I would often question myself on the nature of rape. Is it really about power or simply a quest to relieve oneself in someone else?
Could it be rape is a sickness? That some men simply can no longer control themselves? The desire to be inside any woman, by any force necessary, overrides all inhibitions. Could it be a sex addiction? Ingaba bethu abanye abantu isigulo sabo yimbatyo?
These questions came rushing back to my mind as I read Nomawele Njongo’s new book, Abortion by the Womb of Democracy.
One might remember Nomawele as the parliamentary intern who brought down then-ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, in 2006. Perhaps saying she brought him down would be unfair, seeing as it was Goniwe himself who brought himself down by inviting a pregnant 21-year-old to his Acacia Park home and trying to have his way with her.
“Ndifuna undigade (I want you to protect me)!” he kept saying as he lured her into his bed and she refused. “How can you refuse to sleep with your chief whip as if it is a request being made by an ordinary person?” “Bendikuthembile ndicinga ukuba uyintombi yomXhosa (I trusted you thinking you were a real Xhosa girl)!”
The book not only details the Goniwe encounter, but also delves into two other instances where the author survived rape attempts. It is a book that examines the psyche of gender-based violence and what men in power put women through in workspaces.
Nomawele suggests that sexual harassment and rape culture must be addressed primarily at schools and homes, where the message “women are not sex playthings” must be reiterated.
She concedes that women alone cannot solve this epidemic: “Men must stand up and not watch while women cry for help.”
The book is not entirely about rape and gender-based violence; it is also an insider account of how power works within the ANC. It narrates the role of women in the ANC and the behaviour of men within the party. You can sense the author’s dismay at how the liberation party has turned out.
The books gives the sense that the ANC is run like a rural household where young employees are treated like children, women are just that and must also submit to ootata, while men are the all-knowing decisive patriarchs.
To drive home this point, the author’s mother, having heard about the sexual harassment, proffered the following words of advice to her daughter: “Mntanam, umsebenzi ufana nomendo,
uyawogquma amahlazo (My child, work is like marriage, you conceal some of the shenanigans that happen inside).”
The book is clumsy in how it name drops some prominent ANC members, who were not directly implicated in some of the shenanigans, but this clumsiness adds to its credibility.
Nomawele tells of her dismissal from the ANC by then secretary-general Gwede Mantashe.
It is a harrowing account of pushing someone out of office in the most vulgar manner and portrays Mantashe as what can only be termed krwada in Xhosa: uncouth, raw and mean-spirited.
After the author reported Goniwe’s advances on her in 2006, her family endured death threats, she was treated like a leper by some MPs and no one wanted anything to do with her in the party. If it had not been for Vytjie Mentor, who was the ANC caucus chair at the time, Nomawele would have been lost. Disciplinary processes took place and Goniwe, the “sex pest”, left. She stayed on until June 2013.
Today, she deems herself unemployable and “blacklisted from accessing opportunities”. For her it has become clear the womb of democracy is incapable of nurturing its children.