WeeklySA_AdminDOUBLE JEOPARDY:Jailed women describe trauma of freedom lost for the sake of unrequited love
By Boitumelo Tshehle
A North West woman used the money that the government gave her to feed her children to pay bail her boyfriend who had stabbed her in the stomach while she was eight months pregnant. Worse, the rusted knife penetrated the foetus, causing a bruise on the arm of the unborn baby.
As the country wrapped up women’s month highlighting the welfare of women on 31 August, Molly Thwesha (39) explains why she ended up in jail. She was one of the women who spoke out about their ordeal when Correctional Services Deputy Minister Nkosi Phathekile Holomisa visited the local prison in Mahikeng in North West on Tuesday
Thwesha was arrested in 2019 for abusing her children, who she neglected to chase after the love that landed her in prison. “He is enjoying life (outside) and I am deprived of being a mother because of love that did not work out for me,” she said. Her boyfriend, she says, was abusive but she thought maybe if she could give him a child he would change. She hooked up with him while with her two children from a previous relationship.
“Little did I know that I was signing my ticket to prison,” she said. Molly said she was deprived the opportunity to become a mother to her three children because of her love for a man. Holomisa’s visit was to inspect the state of correctional centres and whether they were kept in good conditions.
Julia Cossa spoke of her relief, but also of the years of trauma she endured. She was arrested for attempted murder. She said her case will help countless victims who suffered the same fate as her.
“A man cannot be trusted. There are men who deserve to be married and others that don’t, but what I can say is, be independent. Never expect a man to do anything for you,” she said. But, for a 34-year-old Diane Shopha, it was just a miscarriage of justice. “I was arrested for the crime I did not commit. The house burnt after a heated argument, I went out for help and when we returned, a person was dead and I was the only explanation for the death,” she said. Holomisa said men still continue to kill women. “I would not say the women are now taking the upper hand, men continue to be males who continue to kill women.
“So, we have to continue to advocate for a different understanding by males on how to relate with females because, in most instances, it is because of the vulnerability of the women that they end up killing their husbands, because they depend on their husbands. Most of the resources belong to males.
“When males decide to ill-treat females, then they find themselves at the end of the day with the only resort being to kill them, thinking that by killing them, the problem will go away, but it does not go away because you end up losing your liberty, staying in a cell,” the Deputy Minister said.
