Silenced GBV victim wants justice

A victim of Gender Based Violence (GBV) who was molested as a teenager has spoken about her numerous suicide attempts after she was denied justice against her perpetrator last year.

“My mother was molested as a child and me, too,” said the young woman who asked to remain anonymous.

She said because her mother fell pregnant at a young age, her father tried to force her to abort the pregnancy.

“She ran away from him to raise me,” she said.

The woman said her mother met the man who molested her when she was eight years old.

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“I barely turned 13 years old when he started touching me.”

She said because her mother was also molested as a child, she couldn’t get it over her heart to tell her mother she was also being molested.

“He threatened me and said if I told my mother he would end her.”

The woman said he touched and penetrated her. At the age of 17, the woman told her mother she was being molested after her secret came out at church.

She said when she tried to get a restraining order against the man, they were referred to court.

“I wrote a statement but they told me I didn’t have enough evidence.

“The state told us it wasn’t worth it to do anything about the matter,” the woman said.

“I then left it. It is now two years later.”

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She said because she didn’t get justice, she tried to take her own life several times.

“I’m disappointed that I didn’t get any justice. I have so much anxiety because I know he is not in jail,” she said.

The woman said she recently looked him up on social media and she saw he married a woman with two girls.

“That bothers me. He might do the same to them,” she said.

University of Limpopo victimologist Prof Jaco Barkhuizen said the woman should try to reopen the case given the fact that there was no time limit in reporting a sexual offence.

He said to silence victims by telling them their cases were not worth pursuing was wrong.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za