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Ntombesintu Mfunzi on how running helped her overcome her near-death rape ordeal. Picture: Richard Pearce / Richard Pearce Photography
The hilly and winding trail routes near Mhlakulo village in the Eastern Cape are challenging for even the most elite runners.
In some parts, reaching the summit requires crawling up the rugged gravel paths on tiptoe.
Ntombesintu Mfunzi, a 39-year-old ultramarathon runner, is one of the top female runners in the country. She lives and trains in this expansive region.
Mfunzi grew up in Ntsimbakazi – a village about 130km (80 miles) from Mhlakulo – where local races are rare.
In 2013, she was invited to compete in the Mirtha Pasiya Run for Diabetes. She won the half-marathon and successfully defended her title in 2015 after the 2014 event was cancelled.
Ntombesintu Mfunzi: Eastern Cape athlete s fight against rape zimbabwestar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from zimbabwestar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
Between December 2020 and 3 March 2021, 10 South African men were sentenced to life imprisonment for rape.
Those men removed from society include a 37-year-old uncle who raped his 10-year-old niece, a 44-year-old man who raped his 14-year-old stepdaughter, a man who raped a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old after luring them into his home, as well as two serial rapists who kidnapped their victims, held them hostage and raped them.
Although this might seem like a drop in the ocean in a country that lives with a seemingly permanent “second plague” of gender-based violence (GBV), the sentences by courts across the country are a moment for pause and faint optimism.
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
As businessperson Andy Kawa continues her fight for justice following her gang rape, the Constitutional Court has heard that a heightened duty of care should be placed on the police to investigate gender-based violence cases diligently and carefully and to avoid secondary trauma.
“The ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system … sends an unmistakable message to the whole of society that the daily trauma of vast numbers of women counts for little.”
Quoting former Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs in her argument before the Constitutional Court, Nazreen Rajab-Budlender, counsel for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), started her argument in a case that lawyers hope will win improved police investigative services for the survivors of rape and sex crimes.