Fezekile ''Khwezi" Kuzwayo is not a political pawn, keep her name out your mouths

Fezekile ''Khwezi" Kuzwayo only got her name back after she died. 

For years she was shamed, threatened and erased of who she was before she accused Jacob Zuma of rape.

As a child in rural South Africa who had little interest and care for politics and news, even I knew that something was abuzz. Zuma was everywhere. He was alluring, charismatic and had his supporters eating out of the palm of his hand.

I remember watching the news on TV with my father once. He was perched on the edge of the couch, concentrated on the screen in a way I had never seen before.

Despite his peculiar interest, I was petulant and in my own world, upset that he would not let me watch cartoons.

As a journalism student and an avid reader, I bought Redi Tlabi's KHWEZI, the remarkable story of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo. 

As I read the compelling book, I was inundated with guilt, as a purported feminist. I felt somewhat complicit in her horrible treatment back then despite the fact that I was a child.

Tlabi recounted that although some South African's women's advocacy groups came to Fezekile's aid, she had to flee her own country and find refuge with strangers whom she had to trust had the best interests for her.

She stayed in safe homes in the Netherlands and Tanzania until coming back to what was once her home in 2016. She died in the same year.

Reflecting on the book, writer and activist, Sisonke Msimang said: "This book shames Zuma in a way he has not been shamed before: on a wider scale and in front of a far wider audience.

"When Zuma was acquitted in the rape trial that trampled on the rights of the woman at its center, the presiding judge knocked South African women back a century."

Now, the ANC recently announced that it should have protected Fezekile.

I re-read that headline of the article written by my colleague Kamogelo Moichela a number of times just to make sure I didn't have some kind of sudden onset of delirium.

How convenient it is to be apologetic now when all that remains of Fezekile are bones and memories etched into people's minds.

To anyone with two braincells to rub together, this apology is contrived and 18 years too late.

Now that Zuma is the ANC's opponent, it seems they are 'digging up dirt' to fling at the politician.

Fezekile was essentially tormented, stripped naked and set alight at the public square with hundreds cheering 'the witch is dead'.

After nearly two decades, dredging up her memory, essentially flaying her once more for political gain is shameful to say the least. 

Perhaps another goal is to use her to placate the ANC's image in this 'woke' epoch.

Born into the Struggle against apartheid then later contracting HIV, Fezekile knew pain, yet she had never dreamed that the country she fought for and loved would turn its back on her.

Among numerous attacks, her house was burned down.

She was painted with the label of being promiscuous and a sl*t for walking around a man wearing only a Khanga.

What was barely told is that this man was a close family friend and even considered himself to be her uncle even without blood relation.

"There is noise that the family of comrade Kuzwayo is not healed because of the tragedy. We dearly apologise for that... We should have stood up when Khwezi was abused, we had others who spoke about it, but it was not enough," the provincial chairperson of the ANC Siboniso Duma told Fekezile's family.

The calculus of power bulldozes anyone who is standing in the way or is in any way perceived to be a threat.

At the time, Fezekile was a thorn in the flesh of the ANC and Zuma, and she was dealt with and treated as such.

This is not the first time that Fezekile has been used as a political tool.

In 2017 when vying to be the new ANC leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on a radio station that he believed that Zuma had raped Fezekile.

"Yes. I know how difficult and painful it is for a woman to garner up the courage to stand up and say: 'Yes, I was raped'. It must be one of the most difficult decisions that she had to make, so, yes, I would believe her," Ramaphosa said.

So, for all those years he had been fraternising, hugging and rubbing shoulders with someone he believed to be a rapist.

When the tide turned and the two had to fight to be on top, Ramaphosa had a change of heart. 

This latest apology adds insult to injury, as the nation is currently commemorating 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Children.

Taking accountability for past mistakes, apologising is not only acceptable but imperative.

However, it has to be earnest and sincere.  

So, in the midst of this farce, I say Fezekile is not a political pawn, keep her name out your mouths.

She once posted on X (Twitter): "I may never be free from the agony of your treachery/but will forever cherish the freedom to speak that my father got murdered for."

Fezekile will be remembered for her HIV/AIDS activism, feminism, gentleness, strength and resilience.

* Xolile Mtembu is a Digital Journalist at IOL.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media or IOL.