Women recount horror of abuse at hands of men

One was verbally, sexually and physically abused by her former husband so much that she lost vision in her left eye.

The other had her one-year-old child abducted by her lover’s family and taken to Zimbabwe without a passport.

Both women, 33-year-old *Pinky of Protea Glen, Soweto, and *Mpumi, 25, of Tembisa, claim police let them down by refusing to assist them.

The two were among people Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko hosted in her offices at the weekend. Almost all the guests had a complaint about treatment they had received from the police. Mazibuko hosted the event because of stories she’d heard of how police were not servicing communities, were refusing to help victims open cases, or were opening cases that were not investigated afterwards.

She had also invited the head of detectives in Gauteng, Major-General Norman Taioe, and representatives from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Mazibuko had invited her guests, Taioe and the NPA contingent to see to it that the complaints were taken to the provincial office, where Taioe will ensure the cases are investigated properly and that the NPA ensures the perpetrators are prosecuted.

Pinky said her husband had started abusing her in 2003 and assaulted her everywhere, even in the street. She would open cases, but withdraw them as she was unemployed.

One day, after attending a soccer game at the Johannesburg Stadium, her husband beat her up, tore the shirt she was wearing and demanded his sneakers that she was wearing. She went home in a taxi barefoot and only in a bra and jeans.

The beating continued while she was pregnant and she gave birth at 26 weeks as a result. Even after she’d become a police officer, he would still beat her up at the police station in front of her colleagues. After a while, they separated.

One day, he arrived at her place around midnight under the pretext of visiting the children, beat and throttled her. She fled to the police station and laid a charge.

Police did not know where he lived, nor did they know where he worked except that he was a school principal in Dobsonville.

Pinky managed to lure him to the police station and told the investigating officer to arrest him when he got there. But, he was not arrested.

“He (the husband) later called, laughing at me and saying that money is everything in South Africa,” she recalled.

In March this year, after their divorce was finalised, he arrived at the house, and attempted to rape her.

Pinky said she laid a charge against him, but the investigating officer forced her to withdraw the case.

Mpumi’s situation has destroyed her relationship with her relatives in the Eastern Cape. Her child’s father died in a car accident when she was pregnant.

Living in Tembisa, but working in Tokoza, she said she had asked the boy’s two aunts who live in Hillbrow to help look after the child for a month because of her working hours.

Her mother was to arrive the following month to help her with the child.

The two agreed and Mpumi was able to visit the boy on Fridays.

One day, while Mpumi was at work, the two women sent the one-year-old child to Zimbabwe without telling her.

Mpumi went to Hillbrow police station and laid a charge. She said they were about to go to the sisters’ flat when a senior woman officer prevented them.

“She told me in front of the two officers I was to go with that the issue had nothing to do with them and that I had agreed with the child’s aunt that they should take him.

“She also said I should have gone to them first and made an affidavit before giving the sister the child. But I did not know that I had to do that or that they would take my child,” she said.

Mazibuko said people could complain by SMSing “abuse”, “police”, or “victim support” to 32026. Someone will call them.

* Not her real name. - The Star