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Marietjie Bothma.
Nomvelo Chalumbira, News24
- Marietjie Bothma has implicated the daughters of KwaSizabantu leader Erlo Stegen in allegations of sexual assault.
- Bothma says that they made her “suck the breasts” of Stegen’s daughters and “touch other things on her body.”
- Bothma described her years of abuse on the mission, which she said included numerous beatings and sexual assaults.
Marietjie Bothma, a woman who grew up in the controversial KwaSizabantu Mission, has implicated the daughters of mission leader Erlo Stegen in mission sexual abuse, in testimony before the CRL Rights Commission.
Bothma alleged that, as a child, she was forced to “suck the breasts” of Stegen’s daughters, Ruth Combrink and Elizabeth Vermaak, the commission heard Thursday.
Combrink has previously spoken on behalf of the mission in response to allegations of abuse against the mission.
The mission had previously denied allegations of abuse, saying that many of the allegations concern specific individuals, and not the mission as a whole.
Bothma said her abuse began in the 1990s at the Stegen household when the Stegen children “tormented” her and her siblings.
“The first meeting I remember was with Erlo Stegen’s own sons, his daughters, namely Ruth Stegen, who is now Combrink, and Elizabeth [Vermaak], which used to torment us, the small children of the house, we had to suck her breasts and do other things, touch other things on her body.
“[T]They used to take it as a game, telling us that they are playing moms, “Bothma testified.
Through tears, he added:
“When we were talking about [it], they used to punish me by putting pepper water in my mouth, I was just a kid [younger] of five “.
Bothma testified about her years of abuse at KwaSizabantu within her home and mission school.
She described how her adoptive father had sexually assaulted her and her sister, but although the mission claimed he had been “treated”, Bothma said he never was and instead fled the mission.
On multiple occasions, Bothma said that she was brutally beaten, and sometimes with other children in public.
She described how, when she arrived at the mission school with wet hair on one occasion, the teacher grabbed her feet “and mopped the floor with me.”
“I remember reporting one of my counselors for making me touch them as punishment before they read the Bible verse that I had to be humble and do what Erlo [Stegen] He said.
In the final episode, we delve into the origins of the KwaSizabantu Mission: we explore the anointing of Erlo Stegen as the mission messiah, as well as “the revival of the Zulus” and the resurrection of the dead. pic.twitter.com/BReW8VVkPw
– News24 (@ News24) October 15, 2020
“They locked me up for days, my punishment was always worse because I wasn’t one of them [Stegen]. They used to lock me in a small room above the auditorium, sometimes for two weeks.
“My mother came in the middle of the night with [food and water], so I can eat something and when my father found out that she did that, [would beat her]. “
Bothma’s accusations against KwaSizabantu were carried out at a News24 exhibit, Exodus.
The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) launched an investigation into the complaints and has been hearing testimonies for the past two weeks.
The hearing continues.
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