We salute rape survivor, Hayley Rautenbach
After spiking her drink and then raping her, her attacker looked over at her and smirked.
WE are often contacted to follow up on stories and after a person gives us the whole lowdown they say: “But don’t use my name.” Some of the stories pertain to stories like illegal dumping or a neighbour’s barking dog or a troublesome cat, but others sometimes are bigger and the reader would tell us that they have some information of corruption within a certain organisation, for example.
Often we cannot legally use a person’s name, but most times its annoying when people call in wanting us to publish a story but then not use their name. Nonetheless, we do it because we are a community newspaper, concerned with covering news that pertains to our community. So when Shiraz Habbib came to me with a story last month about a Durban North woman who had been raped by a stranger and who had not opened a case with the police, I, like many others, asked: “But why did she not lay a charge and why won’t she let us use her name?”
But after hearing Hayley Rautenbach’s story, I quickly changed my mind. The rape had left her gutted and humiliated. By last week, however, almost one month after the incident, the 43-year-old had healed somewhat and allowed us to use her name. I salute her.
