Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Mat South Bureau Chief
FOURTEEN-year-old Memory Ncube could not contain her pain as tears trickled down her cheeks while she narrated her rape ordeal which has left her contemplating suicide.
Even the birds seemed to have stopped chirping as if to listen to her agonising story.
She tried to speak, but she choked at her pain. Her voice trembled as she narrated how she was raped by her father at the age of nine; not once, not twice but numerous times. Her painful ordeal did not end there. Just as she thought her agony had ended when her father left the country, a close family friend raped her yet again.
This has torn her very core into a million pieces that no one can ever repair.
For her, the only solution out of this heartache is taking her own life. Her family found two of her suicide notes in which she narrated her ordeal, after suffering in silence for several months.
Memory, who stays in West Nicholson with her paternal uncle and aunt, grew up in Mberengwa with her biological parents. Her mother left her in the custody of her father when she was eight-years-old.
“My mother was being physically abused by my father so she left us when I was eight-years-old in 2017. When I was aged nine, my father started raping me. I reported the matter to some neighbours but they didn’t believe me and dismissed the issue. I stayed with my father for two years and he raped me several times during that time.
“A tsikamutanda came to our area and revealed to the people that my father was raping me and that was when people started believing my story and taking me seriously. My father fled and went to South Africa, leaving me behind. My uncle and aunt took me in and stayed with me at their home in West Nicholson,” she said.
Memory said she moved to West Nicholson in November 2020 and found her uncle and aunt staying with a family friend whom they now treated as a relative. She said last year around April, the family friend started making sexual advances towards her.
Memory said the man raped her several times and warned her against reporting the matter. She said sometimes he would hold a knife to her throat and threaten to kill her if she revealed the rape.
Memory said she was afraid to report the matter to anyone and kept quiet. She started contemplating killing herself and wrote a suicide note which she placed in her aunt’s wardrobe. He aunt however did not see the note. Memory wrote another suicide note in November last year and placed it on her aunt’s bed, and that is how her guardians got to know that she was being sexually abused at home.
“I was afraid to tell my uncle and aunt what was happening to me as the suspect was constantly threatening to kill me if I reported him. I was also afraid that no one would believe me as had happened with my father. I saw it best to kill myself rather than live in fear of not knowing when the suspect would come and rape me again or kill me.
“Since I couldn’t share my story with anyone, I decided to write my ordeal down so that people would know what was bothering me when I’m gone. I had been living in great pain because of what my father had done to me and now the man had just added salt to the wound,” she said.
Memory’s paternal aunt whom she stays with said they decided to take her in after she was abused by her father. She said they first took Memory for counselling and medical check-ups to help her get a fresh start.
The aunt said she however did not know that the safe environment which they were trying to give to her niece would turn out to be toxic.
She said she noticed a change in her niece’s behaviour but each time she inquired, Memory refused to disclose what was bothering her.
“After she had received counselling following her ordeal with her father, my niece recovered. After sometime, I noticed a change in her behaviour. I would find her crying and she would appear seemingly shaken. I tried asking her several times what was bothering her but she would not disclose. I even engaged her teacher and we both tried to talk to her but she refused to open up,” she said.
The aunt said she only learnt that her niece had been sexually abused at their home in November last year after seeing the suicide note.
“I was afraid that my niece would kill herself so I immediately started monitoring her whenever I could. We reported the matter to the police and the suspect was arrested but he was seen walking about the streets recently. I don’t know how far the matter has gone. It scares my niece that the suspect is still out there. We have also reported the matter to the Social Welfare Department so that my niece can get assistance,” she said.
Matabeleland South provincial social welfare officer, Mr Criswell Nyakudya said the matter had since been reported to their Gwanda office and they are now handling it.
He said a process is underway to place the teenager in a safe home.
Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Loveness Mangena said the matter was reported to the police in November last year and investigations were conducted leading to the arrest of the suspect.
She said the suspect was arrested and appeared in court on initial remand. Insp Mangena said the suspect was then released on bail. @DubeMatutu
Online Reporter