Johannesburg - “My number is like a public phone. People rely on it more than they rely on 10111.” These are the words of a woman still widely addressed by her moniker, “Mama Action”.
Former Cabinet minister Nomvula Mokonyane says she dreads taking calls in the morning, because she views them as harbingers of bad news, like a death in the family.
But more and more she’s come to have no choice but to field the calls and they are mostly from distressed women, victims of gender-based violence asking for help. When a 94-year-old woman was raped by a 21-year-old neighbour in Mapetla, Soweto, last week, the first call they made was to her.
“Any time of the day, also with the responsibility that I now have on a day-to-day basis for the ANC as the head of organising. But everybody knows that I’m a gender activist. I believe in the struggles (of our people) but more importantly in the emancipation of women.
“So I get calls, I get messages. I have people coming right at the gate of my house. I have people going to Luthuli House, both organisations and individuals. Sometimes it is too draining.
“When you listen, or you look at the victim, and then you feel ‘I wish I could do something immediately, to reassure her’. And in many instances, it’s a she – young and old.
“Precisely because we have put the issues of women as a priority area. I’ve also come to accept that we’re in a very bad state when it comes to crimes against women and children, and other vulnerable groups including your LBGTI communities.
“So I get calls, messages, people coming here; even to my parish. I know that when I go to church part of my work will be to give advisory support," she said.
The nonagenarian rape survivor is an active member of the ANCWL, Mokonyane says.
"She attends meetings and participates in programmes. If she’s not there she’s at a senior citizens’ club. She’s a fitness fanatic.”
The plight of this woman filtered through to a WhatsApp group Mokonyane is on, called Women for Women. The message she received was also sent separately to another member of the group, former Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini.
“We were both just shocked. We said let’s find out what has happened. In the group, people started talking about it. I think for a moment I felt it was rather too much. The person alleged to have raped her is virtually a great-grandchild, not even a grandchild.
“Strangely he’s done this to someone who is helping his family to survive. We agreed we were going to follow up on the case. I went to see the family on Thursday. We were in touch with the grandchildren. They took her out of the house. She’s now with her son and daughter-in-law.
“But she’s also not fine; with how she narrates the story. We interacted with the MEC for Safety, Faith Mazibuko, who is also in the group. uGogo was attended to. The suspect was apprehended.”
Mokonyane says her thoughts were also with the little girl in the south of Johannesburg. "You just feel we’re left to our own devices. This is not it.”
At the time this was happening, “I was also talking to the premier of Mpumalanga” about the abducted municipal manager and her driver. Luckily they were both found alive. What have we done? Why must women face such atrocities?” Mokonyane wonders.
“I’m a member of Basadi ba Mogale, an advocacy group in Kagiso. We do a lot of advocacy work. We would talk about these issues. Everybody was just agonising. The sense from these groups is that things are getting worse. No stranger is doing these things.
“Why would somebody who knows me take advantage of me? Surely Gogo took this child as her own grandchild. Now, this thing happens to her. I can just imagine what was happening to the young girl Makgabo Poo. Which police station are you taking her to? Is there a rape kit there?”
A former MEC for Safety and Security in Gauteng, she laments the dearth of rape kits at police stations.
“We need to pause a bit to reflect on what is happening to us. We grew up in big families, with uncles and everyone else around. I never became a victim of sexual assault. Today I worry about my own daughter and my grandchildren. You just worry even about yourself.
“A woman out shopping at Mall of Africa was being followed around. She texted me. There are stories of human trafficking around the Mall of Africa. Luckily, she was safely escorted to a taxi to Tembisa, her home.”
But why do the women call you and Bathabile, and not the police?
“The assumption is that you’d be able to call someone who’d act immediately. You then have to take that as your project until she’s safely back home."
The rape incident at West Village is an obvious sore point for Mokonyane, who had been raising red flags about the Zama-Zama situation in the area for the past two years.
The incident took place on the morning of the ANC Policy Conference. Prepared to disrupt the proceedings at the conference, she vowed: “It can’t start until we talk about this.”
What irks her is that, with police intelligence and everyone else at the Policy Conference around him, the president was not aware of the incident until Mokonyane broke the news and insisted that action be taken.
Through her efforts, President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned the incident in a statement to the media and Police Minister Bheki Cele left Nasrec for West Village. Cele would take flak from residents under siege from the Zama-Zamas.
Mokonyane talks about sensible solutions to the Zama-Zama problem and one wonders if these ideas are not shared with her colleagues in the governing party. She says, for example, to charge the absent landlords of the disused mines. Re-purpose the areas to create employment for local youth. She is very familiar with the Zama-Zama activity in Kagiso, her hometown.
As for young men raping the old, Mokonyane supports bringing back old community values of tight-knit families: “The system has broken down; it does not work for women. Time to go back to the basics.”
By this, she means good old-fashioned neighbourliness where people checked up on their neighbours.