ONE night her daughter answered a knock on the door, only to be met by a gunman who burst in and opened fire, shooting her repeatedly at pointblank range.
But the fiery redhead, Sharon Mdletshe, chairwoman of the Mzinazi Community Policing Forum (CPF), miraculously survived the assassination attempt to tell her tale, show her battle scars and motivate other women to have courage – even when literally under fire.
Mdletshe, now the representative of the Zululand Observer’s charity arm, DICE (Do I Care Enough?), was interpreter and speaker at a workshop on human trafficking presented by the Freedom Generation SA at Amangwe Village.
The training was aimed at 28 home-based caregivers, headed by Amos Mtshali, who reach 452 patients per month with primary healthcare and information about HIV/Aids and related diseases.
They were identified as peer-to-peer educators by the KZN Human Trafficking, Harmful Traditional Practices, Pornography, Prostitution and Brothels Task Team, locally represented by Freedom Generation SA and the Zululand Observer as media partner.
Mdletshe is well known as a fearless campaigner for justice and often the first point of contact to report rural crimes, including muti murders and mutilations, child rape, abandoned babies, suicides and abuse.
‘Do not look at yourself and say I have no husband, I have no job, I am not qualified, rich or influential – I am nothing.
‘You can be the one to make a difference.’
Mdletshe interpreted the presentation by Pastor Caroline Pitout to the Zulu-speaking audience and added cases she personally encountered, including the forced marriage of a young girl who was raped by her ‘husband’, with the full knowledge of her family.
The girl refused to marry the much older, already married suitor, who wanted her to leave school and move to Johannesburg with him.
Her impoverished family saw him as a meal ticket and the door to a better life and told her to marry him.
When she continued to refuse, the family arranged a party and she was sent to a nearby homestead to bring candles.
The ‘husband’, hiding inside as arranged with the family, then raped her.
Pastor Pitout said there was a difference between the cultural practice of ukhutwala, where the couple mutually consent to a mock abduction of the woman to place pressure on their families to enter into marriage negotiations, and forced marriage.
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