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Mthatha: Where rape and murder thrive

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Mthatha. Picture:Lubabalo Ngcukana
Mthatha. Picture:Lubabalo Ngcukana

Asiphe* was sleeping at home in Mthatha’s Ngangelizwe township when her uncle asked her to open the door one evening so he could get his food.

But he raped her instead.

Now 16, Asiphe was 11 when she was raped. Her mother, a nurse at Mthatha General Hospital, was on night shift and she and her five-year-old brother were alone at home.

Her uncle, who stays in a backroom flat in their yard, usually came home late, drunk. That night was no exception. The family member who usually baby-sat them was at home in the village.

It was about 8pm when my uncle came in. My brother was already asleep and my mother had gone to work for her 7pm shift.
Asiphe, rape victim

“My uncle asked to come in to get his food. I opened for him because he was my uncle and he loved us. But as soon as he come inside he took out a knife and told me if I screamed he would kill me. He then raped me,” she said.

Now in Grade 11, Asiphe told her mother what happened only last year. She said she was terrified that her uncle would really kill her. He has since been arrested and is in prison awaiting trial.

Asiphe’s case is one of 222 rapes reported in Mthatha between April last year and March. The station reported the fourth-highest rape figures in the country, after Inanda and Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal and Thohoyandou in Limpopo.

Nurses working at the Sinawe Thuthuzela Care Centre in Mthatha said it was the only one of its kind and there were no nongovernmental organisations in the area working with victims of sexual violence.

Rape, however, is not Mthatha’s only problem. The city has made its debut in the top 10 stations for murder, coming in ninth place, with 160 people killed in 2017/18. Murder has been on the rise in Mthatha since 2013/14 when 40 cases were recorded.

Mthatha police spokesperson Captain Dineo Koena refused to comment on the statistics and what was fuelling the increase.

But a tavern owner in Mthatha’s city centre had some ideas, saying criminals used shebeens to lie in wait for victims. She has the police’s telephone numbers on speed dial.

“This year alone I have had to call police four times because of people being stabbed to death outside the tavern,” she said, adding that fights often break out, sometimes over minor misunderstandings which turn deadly.

Local activists blame the lawlessness on a lack of political will and a general decline in governance.

Former municipal councillor Pasika Nontshiza said: “There is no proper policing. Criminals thrive where there is no law and order. There are no proper laws or by-laws about taxi or bus ranks.”

Police Minister Bheki Cele closed all taxi ranks in town early this year when a dispute over routes claimed lives almost daily.

Lawyer and activist Mvuzo Notyesi said he was not shocked that Mthatha was in such a state.

There is no police visibility; even municipal police. We have been raising these issues for years.
Lawyer and activist Mvuzo Notyesi

“Even shebeens here are open for 24 hours. There is no monitoring. All this has resulted in criminals exploiting the situation.”

Notyesi’s house in Myezo Park, Mthatha’s most exclusive suburb, was broken into twice. Even his furniture was stolen.

“There are no streets lights in the townships. With no government intervention, Mthatha will become the number one murder capital of the country,” he said.

*Not her real name


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