Newzroom Afrika
Newzfeed PM Edition
There is a macabrely-fitting resonance to the fact that the Nicholas Ninow trial – which could have started any point in the last year – just so happened to get underway this week.
South Africa has gone through a traumatic start to September, with high-profile femicides and violence against women dominating the discourse.
The 21-year-old has admitted to raping a seven-year-old girl in the bathroom of a Dros restaurant. For the best part of a year, Ninow has befitted the image of a modern bogeyman. He’s not tall, dark and shadowy – he looks just like many South Africans of his age and background. And now, he’s perhaps the most fitting representation of Mzansi’s fractured society.
Gatvol citizens have taken to the streets. They are claiming that “enough is enough”. The president has vowed to tackle the vulgar rates of sexual assaults recorded in this country. But few crimes come close to what Nicholas Ninow did last September, in terms of sheer and utter depravity.
He has been afforded the luxury of anonymity by some media houses. For the last 12 months, the exact details of his crimes had been concealed – ready and waiting to be exposed in a criminal trial. That day has arrived, and what we’ve learned could churn an iron stomach.
It just had to be this week, didn’t it? Women and Men against Child Abuse Operations Director Vincentia Dlamini speaks to Thulasizwe Simelane about the hardships they deal with daily and what they want out of this trial.
