Young Activist, Simamkele Dlakavu Shares Rape Ordeal
Simamkele Dlakavu, a student activist from Wits shared her testimony at the #IAmOneInThree solidarity protest yesterday with Rhodes University against Rape Culture. She took the opportunity to share her frustrations about a system that puts victims on trial before the perpetrators. A number of female protestors including Simamkele went topless in the rain at Wits University to show their solidarity with the #RUReferenceList at Rhodes University.
Simamkele tearfully recounted her rape ordeal and said, “There needs to be a social cost, these men rape and nothing happens”.
“I was raped by a close friend. This week I had to tell my mother that I have been hiding it from her all these years,” said Simamkele Dlakavu.
In her first year, she and other students were sexually assaulted by lecturers, she said. She alleged that this continued to this day.
Simamkele is grateful to the women of Rhodes University who she says have given her a voice to speak out.
Watch the video below….
Simamkele Dlakavu is a human rights television producer and runs a social enterprise aimed at developing rural and township youth in South Africa. She was included in the Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South African’s list of 2014.
