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Chronicle Reporter

After enduring years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, Zanele Dube has finally spoken out.

Married off at the age of 18 sometime in 1998, she felt happy and special, but little did she know she had signed a deal with the  “devil”.

Her story began when her mother passed away at the age of 16. Being raised by a single father, who could barely realise her needs as a girl child, only seeing the monetary benefit of sending her off to marriage, Mr Dube didn’t know he had literally “sold” her daughter to a “monster”.

“I was 18 years old at the time. I barely understood life. My mother had passed away and I barely knew the struggles of life and of marriage. My father was ill, he had dementia, and he could barely understand what was happening around him. Like any other girl of my age, I wanted to feel the happiness of dating. I had met a man; he was older but I didn’t care. He was ex-military,” said Miss Dube.

She said because her father was ill and her best way out of a life of struggle was marriage. Her father agreed to send her off.

“I was young and vulnerable. I wasn’t working and depended on the man, a man whom I thought would love and care for me. I depended on him. Instead, he battered and abused me, emotionally and even violated me sexually. I decided I couldn’t take any more of the abuse and ran,” said Miss Dube.

Miss Zanele Dube after taking a beating

While on the run, she said she got entangled in a same-sex relationship, something she had read and heard about and never thought she would experience.

“I met a lady whom I confided in. During that time I fell in love with her and we became a couple. My ex-husband somehow learned of my whereabouts and of the relationship I was in. He came barging into our place of residence unexpectedly one night and beat the living daylights out of both of us,” said Miss Dube.

She told this publication that after they were attacked, they made efforts to file a police report.

“It was all in vain and futile. He was connected. He was a former military man after all and the regime at the time was unchallengeable. He forcibly took me back. I was back in hell. I ran away again to be with the person that brought warmth and comfort to my life again. We changed our lodgings but it was soon found out and all that had happened the first time repeated,” said Miss Dube.

In her “expose” Miss Dube claimed that after her ex-husband took her back home, her lover mysteriously vanished off the face of the world.

“She was gone. No trace, no contact she was just but a memory left in my heart and mind. I suspected my ex-husband had a hand in it. After a while of toiling in a broken house, I ran again but was found and beaten. I spoke to some of my relatives and a meeting was called for both families. It never worked. The best for me was to run again. I changed cities, he would trace, find and beat me. He was a stalker. I was all over the country running from a devil,” claimed Miss Dube.

She claimed she then ran away to South Africa where she breathed for a while before her world came tumbling down again.

“He found me again, it was a nightmare. This time I was living in a different world. I had literally nowhere to turn and the violence was different. He wanted blood. Somehow during the thrashing and the last I managed to escape and hid. I hid in a bush in the middle of the night. This was a foreign land I had no one to turn to and they couldn’t care what was happening in the midst of the screams and bashing,” alleged Miss Dube.

She supposedly fled and found a new place of residence in the neighbouring country.

“It was peaceful for a time but I was already damaged inside. I couldn’t sleep. I suffered from trauma. I constantly looked over my shoulder, peering to see if the monster was still stalking me. The peace didn’t last. This time though there was no beating but stalking and threats. One time I did my laundry and left my clothes out to dry. I suppose it was him, he laced my clothes with something when I wore one of my outfits and developed skin irritation. I went to visit a doctor and he told me I may have come into contact with a deadly substance,” alleged Miss Dube.

“Ever since I have been on the run and I desperately need out of this world, either by his hand or my own. I really cannot take any more of this,” she said with tears rolling down her eyes and cutting the interview.

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