“God is my witness.”
“Angels do not mourn over the mistreatment of the innocent for they know the punishment of the guilty.”
Thandi stared at the message she had received from her little sister’s housemate for a few seconds before she gathered up the courage to finally leave her apartment. The university professor took one last glance in the large full body mirror placed in her living room and reviewed her tailored outfit. She grabbed onto the lapels of her dark blue blazer and twirled around to examine her matching polyester pants. Thandi exhaled before she decided to roll up her sleeves as she made sure her white shirt had no coffee stains on it. This was about the third time she had checked her outfit that morning. She knew she was only stalling.
Gulping in emotions of nervousness, she grabbed her keys from the key bowl and raced out of her abode in a new pair of designer heels, navigating her way down the steps with expert precision.
Before she knew it, she was already opening her garage door and climbing into her car.
She reached straight for her Kanye playlist but for some reason ended up playing Nasty C.
With the young South African artist now thankfully distracting her from her woes as she drove out of her garage, she turned her attention to one of her neighbour’s battered up garage doors, finding it slightly odd that it was being concealed by another neighbour’s white bakkie.
“Must be that Thabo guy...” Thandi mumbled.
She knew him as the guy down the passage from her apartment with personalised license plates on his bakkie. Thandi put two and two together and realised he must have damaged the garage door around some time last night.
Thandi shook her head in disapproval as she made her way out of the complex.
‘Imagine waking up to that...’ she thought regretfully as she raced down to the traffic circle.
‘And I thought I barely made it home yesterday.’
Thandi sped through the fairly quiet neighbourhood and soon found herself at a halt by the traffic lights that would turn off into the long stretch of road that would eventually lead her to the university.
It was here, as she waited for the lights to turn green, that she started fidgeting with her braids. She turned up her music player and lit a cigarette as she turned into Beach Road.
‘She’s gotta be okay if she made it home by herself...’ thought Thandi as she kept trying to tell herself that everything was going to be fine.
After a few more repetitive quotes of reassurance, Thandi found herself parked outside of her sister’s residence. Fear and anxiety kept her contained inside her parked car for a few minutes until she mustered the courage to climb out.
Her need to check on her sister had finally outweighed her overbearing trepidation.
Faking her composure, she arrived at the door with a determined knock.
After receiving no response, she called the friend that had sent her the message, urging her to come and open the door.
Within a few minutes, a tired second-year student opened the door, still rubbing her eyes and yawning.
This time, however, Thandi was more gracious with her entry into the student accommodation.
“Thank you for letting me know as soon as possible.”
“No problem, she’s in her room but she doesn’t want to see anyone...” said Phelo.
“Well, she’ll be damned if she doesn’t see me,” said Thandi with undeniable conviction before heading straight for Asa’s room.
“Asa!” she began shouting from afar.
“Asa!” she continued until she arrived at her sibling’s bedroom door and began knocking.
“Leave me alone! I want to be left alone!” she said.
“Asa, as God is my witness, I will kick this door off its hinges if you don’t let me in...” ordered Thandi.
Silence emanated from the other side of the door as a symbol of protest.
“I’m counting to five, Asa then I’m breaking this door down. 1...2...3...4–”
“Fine!” snapped Asa as she aggressively unlocked the door and crawled back into bed.
Not knowing why she was suddenly gripped with angst again, Thandi slowly opened the door and slid inside her sister’s room.
The curtains were closed but Thandi could easily make out the dozen pieces of tissue paper thrown all over the red carpet.
Her sister lay in bed with the covers hugging her body, so as to conceal herself.
“Asa, what’s wrong? Your friend told me you came back at 1 in the morning?”
“Great. So now you have my own housemates spying on me...” said Asa, slightly muffled by the blanket she had covering her head.
Thandi walked up to her sister’s bed and sat down next to her, staring at the shape of her body as she kept herself under the protection of her bedding.
“Come on, Asa, I’m not the enemy here...” said Thandi to a sibling that had now refused to speak.
“Now, I know something’s wrong. So just tell me what it is, so I can give you advice like I always do...”
Asa pulled the covers back and gazed up at her sister with a deep sense of longing unbeknown to the both of them.
“Can’t you just accept that I’m a little bit tired and I don’t want to speak right now?”
“Well, Asa maybe if you hadn’t gone missing and ignored your phone we wouldn’t need to be speaking right now...”
“Thandi, I don’t want to—”
“Well then too bad, because I pay for all of this and I know you went to that SRC party the same week you told me you needed textbooks...so by God are you going to give me an explanation, or are you going to start paying for your tuition out of your own pocket!”
“No Thandi, it’s not what you think...”
“Oh, I know what to think, you’ve been having a fun time and now you’re broke, hungover and angry I caught you out...”
Asa’s tears began to well up and drip down, sinking into the pillow fabric beneath her head.
"You think you're hot shit, don't you? Well just because everyone tells you you're beautiful, doesn't mean you can walk around thinking that life owes you something because it doesn't. So if you expect that being a floozy is going to—"
"He raped me..." whispered Asa as her whole body began shaking, her sobs rolling off her lips like raindrops down a glass window.
Thandi was too shocked to form an expression. “Wh-what did you just say to me?” she asked.
Asa’s cries loudened as she pursed her lips and tightly shut her eyelids in an attempt to control the noise.
Thandi gripped Asa’s arm as she restrained her own tears.
“Listen to me...I believe you. Now tell me what happened...” said Thandi as she held her sister’s face.
“I don’t want to...”
“You don’t have to get into detail, just tell me who and where...” said Thandi as she reached for a tissue and wiped the beads of sweat off her sister’s forehead.
“No one will believe me, you don’t understand...” “That doesn’t matter. I believe you.”
“I was so scared...” said Asa as her voice quivered. “You don’t have to be anymore.”
"I'll always be here for you..." she assured when she saw Asa retreating into herself again.
“I can’t...”
“Who did it?”
“I can’t remember...”
Thandi stared into Asa’s eyes, desperate to find out the name of her perpetrator.
“Was it one of the SRC guys? One of Ajax’s friends?” Asa looked away ashamedly.
“Who was it then?” pressed Thandi.
Asa slowly shook her head.
“Was it Ajax himself?” asked Thandi, throwing Ajax’s name around out of frustration. Asa remained quiet.
Thandi’s eyes widened at the prospect. “Asa—” she choked.
“Did Ajax rape you?”
“I was drunk and completely out of it, I shouldn’t even have been there, please don’t say anything,” said Asa with a hint of embarrassment in her voice.
“Don’t say anything? He touched you and you think it was your fault?” the hurt in Thandi’s voice seeping out of her being as she got up from the bed.
“Yes! And I’m asking you not to do anything! Thandi!? Where are you going? I told you that in confidence, please don’t make things worse for me!” shouted Asa as her older sister flounced out of her bedroom, leaving the door open in her anger and pacing her way out of the student house before banging the front door shut.
Thandi checked the time on her phone.
‘I’m taking his head off...’ she thought as she angrily got into her car and pulled off.
Thandi violently turned the steering wheel of her car and quickly found herself thrust into the university parking lot, frantically undoing her seatbelt so she could rush to her morning class.
Normally on a good day, Thandi wasn’t the most approachable person but today she had the scowl of death tattooed across her face.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the esteemed Law Professor was on a straight collision course with whatever had pissed her off that day.
Her face turned emotionless the minute she entered her class.
“Ma’am, aren’t you proud of us? We’re here early for the 7:45...” said one of the students sitting by the aisle.
Thandi flatly ignored him and charged her way to the podium.
Snarling her nostrils and resting her hands on her hips, the Professor aggressively exhaled through her nasal cavity. After quickly disposing of her shoes she began pacing around like a caged animal, keeping her eyes fixed on Ajax’s seat.
The class seemed strangely unbothered for the most part, engaging in casual conversations within their small cliques found scattered around the class. Master classes were never the most full.
A few minutes later, Ajax walked into the class with Zanele, appearing to be in deep conversation as he passed her his phone to show her something.
Thandi twisted her head like she had seen red immediately upon laying her eyes on Ajax.
She stormed up the lecture hall stairs, garnering the attention of the students in the class, clique by clique.
Ajax turned his head towards her in annoyance. “If this is about yesterday I apologise...”
“You self-pretentious little prick,” said Thandi as she shoved Ajax back.
Zanele raised her eyebrow, appearing immensely confused. “What’s going on here?” she asked.
Both parties ignored her.
“So you’re just going to shove me?”
"No, I'm going to beat your brains in," said Thandi as she clipped him above the eye with a right hook, followed by a straight jab to the face. The second she caught him moving off balance, she finished him with a spinning heel kick to the jaw, knocking out the SRC spokesman before he or any bystander could think to retaliate.
Everyone in the class held their silence during the short scuffle but quickly let out a gasp of astonishment the minute Ajax dropped to the ground.
“What the hell is this all about?” asked Z angrily as she subconsciously placed Ajax’s phone into her handbag.
"This pig raped my sister. And I would rather get fired and sued than to not come up to his face and be the first to punch it in. I'm sure this goes without saying guys but this lecture is cancelled and I most likely don't have a job anymore. Good luck for finals..." said Thandi as she fixed her hair and composed herself before leaving the class to go and turn herself in at the Dean's office.
A large feeling of relief covered Thandi whole. Hitting Ajax was a selfish decision that she would relish forever.
‘Now that I’ve had my fun. I need to convince Asa to lay charges. Lord be with me on that one,’ thought Thandi as she climbed into the elevator that would take her all the way up to the Dean’s office.
A strange sense of calmness coursed through her veins as she made her way to her almost certain end.
The trip to the top floor felt long and drawn out.
As Thandi looked out at the view she could see the statue of Franklin Mertins through the elevator’s large glass windows, standing in the middle of the University Square.
“I wonder if he would have anything to say about all of this...” whispered Thandi under her breath.
When the elevator came to a stop, she peeled her eyes from the view and waited for the doors to open up.
“Ma’am, the Dean has asked not to be disturbed today, he’s very busy...” said the receptionist with a tired tone of voice.
“Whatever,” responded Thandi as she ignored her.
She knew Thandi couldn’t be stopped, especially when she was charging into a place. But she had to do something to make it look like she tried. So she reluctantly left her desk and followed behind her, urging her not to interrupt the Dean.
Thandi pulled on the handles of the large wooden double doors of the Dean’s office and waltzed inside the richly decorated
space. Pictures of Franklin Mertens and various retired FMU Deans hung on the walls like some sort of rendition of a hall of fame. Space grey coleford couches stood as a kind of makeshift lounge to the left of the incredibly spacious room. A wide glass wall finished the room's design towards the right, providing an open pan of a large portion of the FMU South Campus due to the vantage point the office was in.
The Dean, standing in front of the view in his office while smoking on a cigar, spun his head around in surprise and cleared his throat.
“So, I have some good news for you. It seems like you’re going to be able to fire me after all,” said Thandi as she sat down at the Dean’s table and crossed her legs.
The University Dean nodded at the receptionist and took a seat across from the Professor that had barged into his office.
"So, tell me more about this good news of yours and make it quick, as you can see I'm extremely busy," he said as he placed his cigar into the glass ashtray on his desk.
“I just hit Ayanda Khaya. Knocked him out actually. Right in the middle of a lecture. So go ahead and fire me. You finally have just cause," said Thandi with a pair of pseudodroopy eyes.
The Dean smiled with a twinkle of disbelief in his eyes as he picked up the phone and proceeded to dial a number.
“Hi, please can I have the most recent footage from...
Sorry, just hold on a minute.”
“Which venue were you lecturing in?” asked The Dean as he placed the phone on his shoulder.
“55.”
“Please can I have the most recent footage from venue 55 streamed to my office computer, please? Yes. In the last 30 minutes. Thank you...” said the Dean as he excitedly kept his eyes fixed on his computer screen.
After a rather short wait, he was watching Thandi beating down Ajax in full view of her class. He beamed from ear to ear.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. This isn’t good news at all, Ayanda will most likely sue you for this,” said the Dean with a faux sense of concern in his tone as he tried to force his facial expressions to match his false act of sincerity.
“You can say what you want asshole. I’m not recording you this time,” said Thandi as she took out her phone and waved it around.
The Dean smiled at the sight and then sustained his creepy smile throughout the rest of his conversation with Thandi.
“But I’m going to need you to say I placed my resignation application on your desk three months ago. So please make sure my severance package is nice and fat,” said Thandi, now showing a smile of her own.
“And why would I do that?” asked the Dean as he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his extended gut.
“Because I still have the tape of you sexually harassing me. You know, the tape I used to help Zanele get free pads in all the girl’s lavatories last year? Yeah. I can still lay charges on you and your precious reputation will be ruined,” said Thandi, adopting the Dean’s insincere sense of sincerity.
“A pain in the ass right until the end aren’t you?” asked the Dean.
“Your words, not mine, Lwando.”
“Fine. You win. But I meant what I said. Ayanda will be suing you with our full backing. And regardless of when you resigned, it still brings me great joy to say that you won’t be working here anymore. Now leave my office and never come back. And for the record, Thandi, I’m sincerely sorry I never fucked you when I could,” he cackled.
Thandi raised her middle finger and kept it up until she had left Lwando’s office.
“Bye, Nancy. Enjoy working for the dictator,” said Thandi as she stepped into the open lift.
She bit the inside of her mouth as she waited for the descent to begin and decided to take out her phone and dial a number.
“Hey...I can’t say I haven’t been waiting for your call but I’m with a client at the moment can I call you back in thirty?” asked Lance.
“Lance...this isn’t a social call. I’m actually calling to ask if you can represent me...”
“Me? I can’t say I’m not flattered but why not represent yourself, I mean you’re more than qualified...” said Lance as he mouthed an apology to his client and quickly stepped out of his meeting.
“It’s too personal for me, Lance. The issue is familyrelated,” said Thandi.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“My little sister got raped. And before you say anything, you know how low the conviction rate for rape is in this country. I can’t take the risk of losing it in court if it means they could use it to set that bastard free. I shouldn’t have hit him but he definitely did the crime, Lance. I’m certain of it.”
“Wait a minute, you hit him? Where are you right now?” asked Lance.
“I just left the Dean’s office, I’m going to see my sister now so I can convince her to lay charges,” responded Thandi as the lift stopped.
"Okay. Let's set up a meeting for some time this afternoon and Thandi, please don't hit anyone on the way to your car. It's bad enough you're looking at a possible assault case while you're trying to get this man convicted..."
Thandi nodded her head as if Lance could see her and walked out of the main building before coming to a halt upon seeing some students approaching her.
“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything of the sort. But I’ve gotta go now, it seems as though some people want to talk to me. Yes.
Okay. Bye," said Thandi, dropping the call before giving her full attention to the people who had been patiently waiting for her to get off the line.
“Whatever it is, I’m not in the mood,” said Thandi as she started walking away.
“Why would you hit Ajax and then say all of those things? What’s going on Prof? You know he’d never do anything like that... I’m going to try and convince him not to lay charges against you because I know how sensitive issues like this are, but you’re still going to have to apologise for your false accusations,” said Zanele.
Thandi scoffed and looked at the two people that had accompanied Zanele, namely Lwazi. The young man had always had a rather uncanny resemblance to his older cousin Ajax. Everything save the difference of their skin tone seemed to match feature for feature, with Lwazi being the lighter in complexion of the two.
“Listen, Z I like you, I always have. But you’re going to have to wake the fuck up. Because they might not tell you this but Ajax is a pig and he deserved far worse than a kick to the head if you ask me. Now, I have a case to prep for,” said Thandi as she left Zanele looking dumbfounded.
“Why would she say that?” asked Zanele.
“I don’t know. But maybe we should continue prepping for your interview that’s in fifteen minutes...because standing here trying to figure out her motives won’t help with anything. I asked them to speed up the timeline for the interview so we can get ahead of the news. They’ll probably want to ask you about what happened but I’ve made sure the questions are primarily centred around the election,” said Lwazi.
Z mumbled in agreement and made her way to the radio station, mentally prepping as advised.
She kept her head down until she was a few turns away from the station, so she didn’t have to make contact with any judgemental eyes.
‘She said Ajax raped her sister. What if...’
‘No man, let me not be silly. Ajax would never do that...’ thought Z as she walked into the radio station’s lobby with Khanya and Lwazi.
“Hi, I was so surprised you wanted to move up the time for the interview. You know, all things considered,” said the radio host as she shook Zanele’s hand.
“Well, surely after you heard my class was cancelled you must have somewhat expected it...or at least considered it to be a possibility,” said Zanele as she awkwardly cleared her throat.
“Right,” said the host with a sceptical tone as she gestured for her and her guest to make their way towards the studio.
“I’ll see you after the interview guys,” said Zanele.
“Don’t worry we’ll be right here,” said Khanya as she watched Z disappear down the studio hall.
“Why did you sound so sceptical just now?” asked Zanele straightforwardly as soon as they walked into the booth. “What do you mean?”
“We were talking about how you must have anticipated my early arrival and it seemed like you had a lot to say but you were holding back for some reason,” observed Zanele.
“Well...everyone is mostly focused on the fact that this is the second time Ajax has been accused of something like this,” said Unathi.
“So? He was proven innocent then, he’ll be proven innocent again.”
Unathi pursed her lips and sat down behind the mike.
“Let’s hope so,” she said, repeating her scepticism.
Z narrowed her eyes in at the radio host and felt herself getting a little agitated.
“Is there something you’d like to say? Because I’d really like to hear what makes you think you can make little innuendos as to whether or not my boyfriend is guilty of a crime he’s only recently been accused of?” asked Zanele passionately.
“Z, you know how much we all admire you as girls which is why we were too scared to say anything but there’s a lot of stories...”
“What? Too scared to say what? And what stories?!” asked Zanele with a heightened sense of aggression in her tone as she took a seat behind the guest mike and placed her handbag on the open seat next to her.
“I really don’t want to cause any issues between you and your man.”
“Well, Unathi wouldn’t you say it’s a bit too late for that?” asked Zanele as she postured her body into the conversation, leaning forward as she spoke.
Unathi paused for a second before she looked at the flashing light behind Zanele up on the wall near the ceiling. “We need to go on air soon, let’s continue this conversation after our interview?” asked Unathi.
Zanele leaned back in her chair, visibly disturbed.
“Fine. Let’s do the stupid interview.”
“And, good morning ladies and gentlemen! I’m sure you all saw our tweets about the change of time for the show, our guest is extremely busy changing the world and stuff so we’ll forgive her for pushing up the timeline. So, Queen Z, our fearless leader,” said Unathi, immediately getting into character.
Zanele cleared her throat, still appearing unsettled.
“Oh, hey Unathi, and thanks for being willing to change things at such short notice,” said Z dispassionately.
“I’m not sure if you’re at liberty to speak about this but before we start, would you mind telling our guests why you’re so early? I mean everyone is already tweeting about it but I thought it would be better for you to actually tell us what happened...seeing as you’re quite closely involved.”
“Uhm, well my class got cancelled and...now I’m here,” said Zanele offishly.
Unathi let out an innocent laugh in an attempt to clear the obvious tension that had built up between her and her guest before the interview had even started.
“And we’re glad you’re here, Z but why exactly did your class get cancelled? I’m reading a tweet here that says a lecturer stabbed your boyfriend, Ajax?” laughed Unathi.
“Well, that didn’t happen,” said Zanele rather abruptly. “So then, what did?” asked Unathi more directly.
Zanele forcibly cleared her throat yet again, this time feeling a bit cornered and boxed in.
“An altercation between Prof. Mndai and Ayanda happened but I’m sure everything will get sorted out soon and you’ll be able to get written statements from the both of them. But to be honest, I’m not really interested in discussing that right now,” said Zanele coldly.
“An altercation sounds so hectic and formal, what do you think could have caused said altercation? Some of our listeners say they saw the Prof being hurled into the Dean’s office shortly after everything had happened.”
“Like I said, Unathi. I’m not interested in discussing that right now.”
“Okay, then. We seem to have a lot of people trying to call in but let’s take a quick break and we’ll come back to answer all of your burning questions. Stay tuned guys, it’s your favourite FMU radio DJ, Unathi the Chosen one, bringing you a summer hit from DJ Maphorisa and Kabza De Small featuring
QwestaKufet and Cassper Nyovest, titled Phoyisa! We’ll be back in a minute with all the lowdown here in The MoTown Morning show! Don’t touch that dial!” sang Unathi before she tuned them out into the music break.
“Dude, what’s up with the irrelevant questions?”
“Woah, Z why are you so combative about this whole thing?” Zanele let out an evil laugh of fury at what she considered to be a misplaced remark.
"Wow. You wanna know why I'm so combative? You outright tell me that there's stories about my boyfriend concerning whether or not he cheated on me, not to mention all the innuendo you've been pushing that he's a rapist. You brush it off as just a regular thing and then proceed to pressure me into answering questions I said I didn't want to answer on air. So between the badgering and you telling me about baseless hypotheticals between my boyfriend and some fangirls, I'd say don't make assumptions you can't back up about my man..."
“Fine. But it’s not assumptions, Zanele. It’s stories from countless girls.”
“Stories about what?”
“The same thing Asa is accusing him of,” said Unathi as she sneakily brought them back on air.
“Okay let’s get one thing straight, Asa isn’t accusing Ayanda of anything. It’s her sister that came in hurling accusations. If Asa was really raped shouldn’t there be a pending case by now?”
“Sorry, please repeat that for our listeners again. So, just because Asa hasn’t opened a case that automatically means Ajax isn’t guilty?”
“Listeners?” asked Zanele as she spun her head around and glanced at the red on-air sign up on the wall behind her.
“What the fuck, you didn’t tell me we were going on air again?” protested Zanele, twisting her head back to glare at her interviewer.
“You’re always on air when you’re running for SRC President.”
“Well, still. I stand by my previous statement. Everything Professor Mndai said in that class should be inadmissible in the court of public approval because there is no formal allegation that has been laid. Not to mention the absence of a guilty verdict,” said Zanele, feeling a surge of anger bubbling through her already heightened emotions.
“Interesting. Well, we have some callers that want to sound off on you, how would you feel about taking a call or 2?” asked Unathi.
“Wow? So you’re asking now. I’m surprised you didn’t just put them on,” said Zanele rather aggressively.
Unathi forced out a candid laugh and fiddled with a few of the buttons on her switchboard.
“So, our first caller is a second-year politics student and she has some concerns about your relationship with Ajax,” said Unathi.
“This isn’t about my relationship with Ajax it’s about—”
“Please Zanele, we’ve given you too much grace as girls in this school because we felt as though you cared and you didn’t really know what Ayanda was up to. But it’s time you stopped shouting at Unathi. Everyone and their dog knows that Ayanda is a player. And he’s raped more than one of my friends so let’s start there. Now he’s been accused by one of your biggest backers when it came to implementing positive change for women at this university, and you’re willing to call her a liar because you believe Ajax too much? Vuka Zanele, you’re dating a rapist,” said the caller.
“Why is everyone only coming out now? I’ve never heard these stories before...” said Zanele with uncertainty in her voice.
“Well, it’s difficult coming out when you think you’re the only one that will. But Asa is a public face, so now more people feel comfortable speaking out...” said Unathi, defending the alleged victims.
“All I’m saying is this could easily turn into an opportunity for sensationalism...”