South Africa is one of the most challenging countries to raise a girl child. This is according to Unicef.
Rape survivor Lebogang Ngobeni lives in the East Bank, Alexandra, a place notorious for many things including sexual crimes.
A horrific 2002 incident shocked the nation. Newspapers dubbed the 6-year old survivor ‘Lerato’.
“I’ve been living with people who don’t know (my name). They know me as Lebo, the next door girl, but they don’t know I am Lebo, Lerato, baby Lerato from Alex. I think it’s time I reveal myself to the world,” says Ngobeni.
Fast forward 2017, Ngobeni breaks her silence around her harrowing encounter.
At age 6, she was raped, sodomised and partially disembowelled by a family friend.
She was left for dead at the banks of the Jukskei River.
“We got to a field and he said take off your clothes. At that time, I am a small child. I don’t understand what is going on. So, I had to do what he told me. He raped me and he felt that was not enough.”
Lebo had to undergo a series of operations.
Children’s rights activist Miranda Friedman recounts the nightmare.
“It was a miracle that she was alive there laying in that bed. We said on that day that we are going to have a zero-tolerance on sexual offences and rape of children.”
Lebo’s journey has not been without hardship. Initially, she was repulsed by men, but overcame this through intensive therapy.
“I am over it. I don’t want to hold myself back. I don’t want to put myself through that. I don’t want hate, because hating him is destroying myself more. I’m letting him win by hating him.”
Lebo would also like to meet her offender, Reuben Modiba who is still behind bars.
“I do want to see him. I can’t remember his face. I can’t remember what he looks like. I do want to see him and maybe let him get a chance to explain himself or maybe give him a chance to say please forgive me.”
She volunteers at a Non-Governmental Organisation which assists young victims of abuse. Through surviving her pain she is able to help others.
“I am a survivor. I am a strong-willed woman.”
