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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Plumtree Correspondent
MS Immaculate Ncube (26) feels she is lucky to be alive after a vicious attack by her boyfriend of one year who beat her up until she lost consciousness.

She is not the only woman who has lived to tell her story. Ms Ntokozo Ndlovu (25) also escaped narrowly after her boyfriend of two years attacked her and her four-year-old son with an axe while she was five months pregnant.

Ms Ndlovu fought for her life while admitted to the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) for a month but her son did not survive the vicious attack by his stepfather as he died on the spot.

These two women might have escaped the perils of gender-based violence but not all victims have been as lucky.

Ms Sibongile Mhlanga and a neighbourhood watch committee member, Ms Elizabeth Maphosa, who was five months pregnant were brutally axed to death by Mhlanga’s husband, Professor Phuthi, while they were on their way to a local police station to report him for domestic violence.

The abuse which Ms Mhlanga was experiencing had been going on for a long time and prior to the gruesome murder, her husband had beaten her up and left her tied to a tree in a bushy area where she was later assisted by passersby.

When Ms Mhlanga finally reported the abuse, the police gave her a letter which summoned her husband to the station. Phuthi became furious when his wife handed him the letter and she had to flee from her homestead to escape his wrath.

Ms Mhlanga in the company of the female neighbourhood watch committee member then went back to the police station to give them feedback on her husband’s uncooperative response. Her husband waylaid the two women and attacked them.

It is alarming to note that these women had been exposed to violence for sometime but were suffering in silence until it was too late.

Ms Ncube, who is from Madlambuzi area in Bulilima District, said she had suffered torture under her boyfriend’s hands for several months.

Ms Ncube who is a mother of three children aged two, three and seven said her lover, Pious Sibanda, brutally attacked her with a log until she lost consciousness in the full view of her two youngest children.

She said her lover went on to hang himself.

“I’d been in love with Pious for a year and three months. Within eight months of our relationship he told me that I had to move into his parents homestead and stay with him. I told him that he had to visit my relatives in Lupane first and ask for my hand in marriage.

“This made him angry and that’s when the abuse started. Before, everything was moving smoothly. He started accusing me of cheating on him and he’d forcibly sleep at my workplace where I was staying saying he wanted to catch the man I was sleeping with,” said Ms Ncube.

She said a week before the brutal attack, Sibanda came to her home while carrying two wires and threatened to strangle her with one and hang himself with the other if she refused to move into his parents’ home.

Out of fear, Ms Ncube followed his orders and agreed to live with him at his home. However, her in-laws intervened and ordered their son to return her to her home if she did not want to live with him.

Ms Ncube said she had remained quiet about the attacks for six months but decided she had to take some action in order to protect herself and her children.

“I finally decided that I had suffered enough and told Pious that I wanted to break up with him. This didn’t go down well with him and he assaulted me severely. I decided to seek police advice as I wanted to break up with him and not to report him for abuse.

“The police told me to go to the court in Plumtree Town but I didn’t have bus fare to travel so I stopped pursuing the matter,” said Ms Ncube.

Her lover continued assaulting her in full view of her three children while her employer was away. Sibanda refused to part ways with her.

On the day she was attacked, Ms Ncube said, her lover came to her workplace while she was with her two-year-old daughter and ordered her to go with him to his home.

But she refused after sensing danger.

Sibanda pulled her towards the gate and started strangling her with his hands. Ms Ncube said Sibanda then armed himself with a log and struck her several times on the head until she lost consciousness.

When she woke up, Sibanda had fled from the homestead. She was bleeding profusely and could hardly see but she staggered to a neighbour’s house who then rushed her to a nearby clinic.

Ms Ncube later received news that her lover had hanged himself but she still loved him despite the torture he put her through.

Chief Hobodo from Mangwe District said youthful women were victims in most GBV cases with their abusers being their live-in boyfriends or youthful husbands.

“It has become a cause for concern that young ladies are now staying with their boyfriends without the knowledge of their families. These men eventually abuse them knowing that they won’t be held accountable.
“These are the ladies who become victims of passion killings or severe abuse. Some of these youngsters relocate to this district in search for work and they cohabit without the knowledge of relatives or family members,” said Chief Hobodo.

He said it is worrying how women are not forthcoming in reporting their husbands or lovers even when the abuse is visible to community members.

Some community members preferred to remain quiet out of fear of being accused of meddling in the affairs of other people, Chief Hobodo said.

He said all GBV cases that ended in tragedy within his area had been ongoing for a while but the victims were suffering in silence.

Chief Hobodo said the fight against GBV required collective effort from various stakeholders, adding that where a victim is not forthcoming to report, community members, relatives and family members had to intervene instead of turning a blind eye.

He said some of the tragedies could be avoided if all stakeholders played an active role in addressing the problem.

“It’s a shame that some cases of GBV will be happening in full view of family members, friends, neighbours and the entire community but they’re ignored.

There’s no case that should be shelved for another day as it might end in tragedy.

“The information that is disseminated on GBV is not only for the victims and perpetrators but for everyone to utilise,” said Chief Hobodo.

He raised concern over some women who withdraw their cases after making reports.

Gender activist and director of ICT, E-Learning and Communication Strategies and Image Building in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mrs Vaidah Mashangwa, said significant efforts have been made towards educating communities on GBV but most rural women are not empowered economically, making them vulnerable.

“There’s still a challenge in rural communities because most women are still dependent on their husbands for financial support. This challenge is also there in urban areas but at a smaller scale.

“This is however not to say an empowered woman is not subject to abuse but it can help reduce occurrences to a certain extent. The fight against gender-based violence doesn’t have one single diagnosis but it incorporates various aspects and empowerment is one of them,” said Mrs Mashangwa.

She said women had to be capacitated so they would be able to leave abusive relationships and marriages.

A significant number of women were suffering in silence out of fear of facing poverty if their spouses were arrested and jailed, she said.

Mrs Mashangwa said uneducated women should pursue various projects that could help them earn a livelihood.

“Some women think they’re helpless without their spouses. They think men are the solution to their problems especially those women that get married at a young age and those who would’ve dropped out of school. Some men take advantage of this dependence syndrome to abuse women knowing that they have nowhere to go,” she said.

Mrs Mashangwa said as a result, some women were not putting the knowledge they have acquired on GBV into use.

She said lack of information and access to ICTs was also a disadvantage to rural women, adding that varying literacy levels between women in rural and urban areas remained a barrier.

Mrs Mashangwa said an individual’s level of education was important in the fight against GBV. She said an educated person is well informed and can make better decisions.

“Access to information is key in any campaign. This doesn’t mean that educators should just move around disseminating information but it also has to be readily available at all times.

“To counter the digital divide issue, there’s need for opinion leaders to continuously disseminate information as they live within communities,” she said.

Women’s Action Group executive director Ms Edinah Masiyiwa said the Domestic Violence Act had a provision that allowed third parties to report cases but members of the public had not started utilising this provision to the fullest.

She said awareness campaigns had been rolled out to men and women in various communities but there were still several barriers in the fight against GBV.

“There’re still issues of socialisation, cultural norms and traditional values that communities are still holding onto. Some referral points such as police stations are beyond the reach of villagers as they’re located far away.

“There’re also loopholes in the justice system because the courts release some perpetrators on remand which puts their victims under threat. Sometimes when a victim goes to the police station to report, they’re told to bring the perpetrator,” said Ms Masiyiwa.

She said these barriers made it difficult to make significant progress in the fight against GBV.

— @DubeMatutu