JOHANNESBURG - In a week where women have spoken out against violence and harassment by men, two Gauteng women have shared their near-death experiences.
Luyanda Sibeko* was abducted by three armed men, driven around for about five minutes and ordered to take off her bra and unzip her pants. She had heard the stories of women being raped and killed and feared the worst.
“During all of this, I kept asking myself: Is this really happening to me?”
Sibeko, 23, had just finished writing her law exam at the Unisa Florida campus and had set out to catch a minibus taxi.
She stopped by a street vendor when she noticed that she was being followed and sent a WhatsApp text to her partner and his younger brother, alerting them that she was possibly in danger.
“As I turned the corner, one of the men in the car ordered me to get in. I refused. The back passenger jumped out and started forcing me in. I fought him and kept saying, I won’t.”
Sibeko fought one of the kidnappers but was overpowered and bundled into the car.
“I was told to co-operate. The one guy turned slightly to show me a gun. It could have been a real gun, a toy or mock gun, but after that I knew things were really serious.”
She relented, and as she was undressing the driver indicated to the other two men to check what was happening behind them. “I saw an old man driving a blue Dodge flicking his lights and saying things through his window. The driver then said they didn’t need any more trouble and that I should be thrown out of the car.”
With that, Sibeko had a lucky escape. “I think the old man saw the struggle that happened. He said he didn’t know what came over him but that he just knew he had to do something.”
The unknown saviour bought Sibeko a drink so she could calm down. He left her in the company of security guards while she waited for her partner, Siphelele Dludla, who took to Twitter to recount the ordeal.
“We took to Twitter for two reasons. One, to raise awareness for many other students who go to Unisa. Also, we hoped to get some sort of link of who that old white man was.
“We want to thank him personally. He could have chosen to ignore this, he could have chosen to not put his life in danger but his decision has given Luyanda her freedom. We are so grateful to him,” explained Dludla.
He feels he failed his partner. “You know, as a man, you play a role of protecting your partner, and if she becomes vulnerable to criminals you feel you have let her down.”
“I know this is a victim mentality that I should seek professional help for, but this is something that is there, I cannot escape from, as a man.”
The couple have decided not to report the matter because Sibeko believes this will delay her healing process. “I don’t think I will ever fully be okay but I just want to be normal, not see everyone I walk past as my potential kidnapper.”
While Sibeko was lucky to be saved, 20-year-old Bonolo Maphuting wasn’t. She went missing on Monday while on her way from school in Mabopane, Tshwane. It later turned out that she had been abducted, raped and left for dead. She explained her harrowing ordeal to The Sunday Tribune.
“It was just after 6pm when I got off a taxi heading home. I was waiting to cross the street when a car stopped in front of me. The occupants pulled out guns and ordered me to get in the car. When I did, they gagged me and tied my hands,” the Tshwane University of Technology student recalled.
She was then taken to a deserted shack in Mamelodi, with only a bed inside. For three days, she was kept there and raped. She was offered no food or water.
“They only gave me water to bathe once. When they left, they would leave me with one guy to keep watch.”
When they were done with her, she was dumped somewhere in Mamelodi where she asked to use someone’s phone to contact her mother.
“I’m happy to be back home. I just want to recover and get back to normal. If and when these men are caught, I don’t even know what suitable punishment they deserve. For now, I want to recover.”
* Not her real name.