We’re a few weeks into 2018 but women are already falling victims of violence at the hands of men. Noluvuyo Dhlomo, 23, from Isipingo was stabbed in the forehead for rejecting a man who had been pursuing her and is now living in fear for her life after her attacker was released from jail. She shared her ordeal with the Daily Vox.
I got stabbed in my forehead by a man who claimed to love me. He had been trying to pursue me into a relationship with him for some time.
He has been on my case since I knew him and I’ve been rejecting him since. I told him I wasn’t interested because he is way older than me but he was very persistent. He started giving me money, which I rejected at first but he said he understood that I wasn’t interested but would still love to do things for me.
I took the first R500 he gave me. I was staying in a shack that had no electricity and he offered to install it for me, I didn’t mind because I needed it. Once again he gave money to my landlord and asked her to give it to me but I refused it, I asked her to take it back and she did. The man came back with the money and convinced me that he was giving it out of good heart, I took it again. This was in December and I was about to leave for home for the holidays.
On 13 January he came to my place unannounced and demanded that I take off the electrical wires he had installed for me because I was taking him for granted. I did not dispute that but I gladly took the wires down. After that he demanded that I pay back all the money he had been giving me, I told him to give me some time because I didn’t have the money then. He went away and came back some time later.
When he came back he had a knife with him and was looking for me. The landlord’s daughter told him that he was not welcome in the yard with a knife, saying it was disrespectful to walk into someone else’s yard wielding a knife. He went away again and I thought that was it.
Later on, when I was walking with my friends passing by the tavern, he came out and demanded his money. He slapped me, I retaliated and slapped him back and that’s when he stabbed me on my forehead. My friends couldn’t do much to help me because they are also women and he could have hurt them too. One young man came out of the tavern and stopped him. He still wanted to go on and stab me more and had it not been for the man who came out and condemned him, he would have killed me.
After this incident, I’ve come to realise that men are violent and would do anything to get what they want. I had only known this man since October last year but already he felt entitled to me. Right now I’m aware that he was released from jail and I’m scared because he might be looking for me to kill me.
Even the police officer that I appealed to for help is not helping. He took my number so that he could update me about the case but he ended up blocking me. I don’t know who to trust anymore.
I just want to go home for a while and will only come back when I know the day for his appearance at the court. This is all very frustrating because even the witnesses are no longer willing to testify since he threatened to kill them. I’m currently in hiding and they were also forced to leave their homes and go to a place of safety.
Edited for clarity and brevity
Featured image via MaxPixelÂ
