Dumisani Rebombo has raped before, but he now spends his life seeking to make amends for what he’s done. He is now an advocate against rape in Africa and fights every day to make things right. CNN tells the story:
Dumisani Rebombo is no ordinary advocate for women’s rights in South Africa. He is a rapist.
He is a rapist who sought out his victim two decades after his brutal act to ask for forgiveness.
He is all this in a nation where sexual assault has become so common that a woman in South Africa is more likely to be raped than learn to read.
Sexual assaults rarely shock anyone anymore, though a video of a brutal gang rape of a mentally disabled teenager went viral on the Internet last month. That touched a nerve.
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As the young suspects face their day in court, Rebombo spoke with CNN to tell his own story — an extraordinary tale of violence, redemption and determination to change things in his homeland.
Rebombo was 15 when he raped.
The boys in his village of Blinkwater taunted him because he didn’t herd cattle and instead went home to help his sisters. He didn’t have a girlfriend.
“Sissy,” the village boys jeered, and challenged him to prove his manhood.
The way to do that was by having sex. Forced sex.
Rebombo had refused until that day, when he gave in to peer pressure. He recounts what happened in a quiet, steady tone.
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