It was a Saturday morning, my mother was cleaning the house and she told me to go to my father in the back room. I got there, took my shoes off, and went to lie down. I used to like spending time with him. I was 8 years old. He started touching my private parts. I looked at him. He said, “ don’t tell anyone what I am about to do”. Then he put himself inside me. I didn’t like spending time with him after that. – Noxolo Vumazonke

Noxolo Vumazonke is an18 years old grade 11 student at Cape Town High School. At the age of 8 her father, Mzwamadoda Vumazonke started sexually abusing her. He continued to threaten and abuse Noxolo for four years.

He took off all the bedding that he raped me on, so that my mother wouldn’t see. And he took me to the bathroom and washed me.

At the age of 12, Noxolo fell pregnant with her father’s child. Noxolo kept her abuse a secret for as long as she could hide her growing belly. She was alone and scared. Eventually her mother, Edith, noticed that her daughter’s body was changing and started asking questions. Noxolo told the truth.

I couldn’t keep the truth from her anymore. I started crying and told her everything. My mother was shocked, she just fainted.

Edith called the police. She believed her daughter, because she had had her suspicions about her husband. Mother and daughter went to the police station and made a statement. Mzwamadoda was arrested for the rape of his daughter. When the baby was born, Noxolo immediately gave the child up for adoption.

I couldn’t look at it.
Noxolo and Edith spent the next four years in court and finally got justice. Mzwamadoda Vumazonke was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

I wasn’t happy, I was expecting a life sentence. He robbed me of my childhood, of my youth.

Director: Lucilla Blankenberg
Producer: Yvette Kruger