Ntsiki Mazwai on believing all victims: I’d rather be wrong than subject someone to secondary victimisation

Poet Ntsiki Mazwai has explained why her default stance is to support and express belief in rape victims even before the justice system gets involved in their cases.

The poet and activist has previously made it clear she stands with victims of rape and  gender-based violence (GBV).

Ntsiki recently took to Twitter to explain the logic behind her “unconditional” support towards victims.

“I believe all victims because I’d rather be wrong than subject someone to secondary victimisation after being raped,” Ntsiki said.

Ntsiki said for her the concept of “innocent until proven guilty” didn’t apply when the crime was rape.

“Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?” one tweep asked.

“Not with rape,” Ntsiki replied.

“We always have to believe the victims first because women are more vulnerable to being raped. We have to start from the basis of believing her. And move from there, ” the poet said in another tweet.

The poet said her first action was always to support the victim, further substantiating her view by adding that the justice system often pulled through and vindicated the accused, whereas the same couldn’t be said for most victims.

Ntsiki replied to a tweep who said “rape accusations” were an attack on the successful black man.

“I wish we could do a thread on successful black men. So you could see there are many. And so you can see that it’s unique being accused of rape. It’s about the person. There are tonnes of clean black men who don’t rape. Tonnes!”

Ntsiki’s cyber activism has landed her in hot water with the law as the poet has been taken to court for her tweets.

Sunday World reported last year that the High Court in Johannesburg decided Ntsiki had acted irresponsibly when she posted on social media that radio personality DJ Fresh was a “rapist”.

This after the DJ had brought an injunction to force Ntsiki to remove the social media post in which she tweeted to her thousands of her followers that the DJ was a “rapist” while referencing another post on Facebook in which other alleged perpetrators of sexual violence were listed.

Not only an activist on Twitter, Ntsiki has proven to her followers that she doesn’t only talk the talk butalso  walks the walk when she joined marches meant to inspire change and  create awareness about GBV and how it can be stopped.