My father has been jailed 12 years for raping me for 12 years – Activist

A South African gender activist has revealed how she was raped by her father for twelve good years until she became pregnant as a result.

24-year-old Zizo Apleni disclosed her ordeal at the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence in South Africa.

She is known to have authored a book titled “My Father Took My Innocence”, following the incestuous sexual assault she suffered between 2001 and 2013, when she was only seven years old.

She has been quoted as saying: “As I was young, I didn’t know what he was doing was wrong. I only found out what he was doing after our hostel manager taught us not to have sex with our boyfriends.

“When I got home, I told my father what our hostel manager told us. He started threatening me and said I should never report it, because no one would believe me.”

Interestingly, she said for the entire 12 years when her father had been abusing her, her mother was completely unaware. She only got to know about it in 2013 when she got pregnant for his father.

My father has been jailed 12 years for raping me for 12 years – Activist ece-auto-gen

“I told her my father had been raping me for years. We reported it to the police and he was bust the same day. I was helped to abort the baby. In 2016, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. My mum was very supportive,” Zizo said.

She has chosen to create awareness and urge other young girls who might be going through similar situations to be bold and speak out for help.

To emphasise Zizo’s call for sex offenders to be exposed and brought to book, Eluncedweni community-based support centre project manager Nombasa Matwele said: “Rape cases must be reported. Our message is residents must guard each other.”

It is unfortunate how some ignorant young girls are suffering various forms of abuse at the hands of people who should be the ones to protect or guard them. Most of them are basically unaware of how to seek help, while others remain silent out ofn shame and stigmatisation.

My father has been jailed 12 years for raping me for 12 years – Activist

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Recommended articles