Special Hearings — Women's Hearings — 1997-07-28

CHAIRPERSON: You know that you mention in your evidence that you really didn't want to come forward, but that you have seen this man again which made you decide to come to the Commission.
 The difficulty of course is that usually after a rape, there are certain examinations that must happen so that one can actually identify whether in fact the person you say raped you, is in fact the same person that you identified.
 Whilst we would like to help you to deal with this matter, the one problem we have is that you haven't actually talked to anybody immediately after this rape so that we could find a way of dealing with the person who raped you, unless that person came forward and actually said he did it.
 So whilst we will try to investigate this matter, it is going to be quite difficult, because it will be in a sense your word against him.  And you didn't - you weren't even - I think the only person who probably knew at that time besides yourself, is your boyfriend and obviously we would need him to give us a statement as well.
 We will of course see what we can do to try and if this person is back, if we can identify him and see what we can do about him.  Perhaps we can issue a subpoena for him so that we can assess what actually - you know whether he's prepared to admit what he actually did to you.
 But it is going to be difficult and we shouldn't in fact pretend that it's an ordinary matter and that we will just be able to deal with it.
 I have one difficulty with what you say, which is that the church will help you.  I think that what my fellow Commissioner says is very, very important;  that you must continue receiving treatment and the proper treatment from a medical institution, a hospital, and if necessary, we must try and refer you to at least one place where you can continue to be seen by at least the same doctor, so that he can take care of your problem.
 Because the church can perhaps help you to deal with the trauma of this problem, but what you really need, is medical assistance to help you with the medical problem that you have.
 And I think we must make sure that at least you attend a proper medical institution to get the kind of help that you need.  Do you understand that that's very necessary, so that in fact this matter doesn't get worse.

KEDEBONI DUBE: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: All right.  We're very glad that you've come to tell us about what you've said.  I am happy that you finally took the decision to come and talk to us, because the more we talk about it, the more other people can come forward and say that perhaps this thing happened to them as well, because we've got to try and stop it from spreading further in our communities.
 And we've got to stop the person who suffers the problem, feeling the shame, because it's not your fault.  I think we need to say that it's the fault of the people who actually do this;  the men who rape women, it's their problem and their fault and you are carrying along the guilt and the shame and you have in fact nothing to feel guilty or shameful about.  W we hope that having come to tell us this experience, that you will begin to be free of some of the feelings which go with what happened to you.
 So thank you for coming today to see us.  If you are not attending a hospital properly, please tell us so that we can in fact arrange for you to attend one of the hospitals that there is, so that you can receive proper treatment for your condition.  
 All right?  Thank you very much for coming to see us today.

KEDEBONI DUBE: Thanks.

CHAIRPERSON: I would like to say that we have heard the experiences of very many different women.  Women in all kinds of walks of life, but what is very, very clear is that this conspiracy of silence that exist, in fact allows abuse to carry on and unless our society begins to talk freely about this, unless we begin to bring the people who do this to book, unless we do something about exposing them;  we will never be free of this. Because at the end of the day, women seem to be objects which can be used by any side and they're the ones who are usually at the forefront of receiving the violence; they and the little children and many of them can't in fact protect themselves.
 Many women have come forward today and I think the one area in which we certainly do have a gap, is the question of women who themselves have been perpetrators. 
 The Commission has tried very, very hard to get women to come forward, women whom we have identified as having served in the previous regime in prisons and in fact, women who've been outside the country as well.
 But there is a reluctance to talk.  Some of them have committed themselves to making written submissions, but none of them were in fact prepared to come forward and talk orally about their experiences.
 We acknowledge that it is probably an angle that we're not going to get to deal with properly, but we will carry on trying.
 We will resume tomorrow at nine o'clock.  We start off with a perspective from a woman who was involved in the conflict from the early 1970s and 1980s.  She was a student herself.  And then we will be receiving submissions from both Fedtraw and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies.
 We will also be receiving the testimony of individual women who also come again from the different provinces which are served by this office in Gauteng.
 At the end of it to celebrate the fact that women have in fact survived the violence, we will be having a celebration by way of a cultural event by Tonokwe and her group, and that will in fact end the proceedings tomorrow.
 We have also been invited by the mayoress of the greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council to a reception at five o'clock in the mayor's parlour on the first floor at the council chamber wing of the Metropolitan Centre, Braamfontein.
 So those people who can attend, we will ask them to please RSVP Mrs Temba Makwanaze at 407-7490, if you are able to attend.
 We would also people to come here by nine o'clock tomorrow, so that we can actually start promptly.  
 Thank you for coming and sharing this day with us and for being patient when we started quite late.  It is very difficult to get all the witnesses together, as they come from the very far provinces in our area.
 So with that apology I will conclude the hearings today.
 Thank you.
(Applause).
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