Fears for Rasuge twin
|Published
14/04/2012 Angry sisters of the late Constable Francis Rasuge, Mamikie Rasuge and Rose Khutsoane speak out on the alleged abuse that prevented the twin of the desceased to miss her funeral at the hands of her husband. Picture: Phill Magakoe 14/04/2012 Angry sisters of the late Constable Francis Rasuge, Mamikie Rasuge and Rose Khutsoane speak out on the alleged abuse that prevented the twin of the desceased to miss her funeral at the hands of her husband. Picture: Phill Magakoe
‘We lost Francis to abuse and will not lose her twin sister as well. We’ve had enough.” These were the angry words of murdered police constable Francis Rasuge’s sisters after Francis’s twin sister Welheminah was barred from attending the funeral allegedly by her abusive husband.
The sisters, Mamikie Rasuge and Rose Khutsoane explained to the Pretoria News why Welheminah did not attend the funeral on Saturday. Welheminah, who works in South Korea, caused a stir when she failed to arrive for her sister’s funeral, despite having flown to SA for the burial. To make matters worse, her cellphone was switched off when nervous relatives tried to contact her.
Welheminah arrived in the country during the week but was nowhere to be seen at the funeral. Her sisters claim she is being abused by her husband and he is the reason she did not attend the funeral.
“We lost a sister because of abuse. Now this. We are not going to lose another sister because of an abusive man.
“We don’t want to feel the pain we felt when Francis died,” said Mamikie.
Welheminah’s husband had also refused to allow her to attend their father’s funeral. The family only found out after their father’s funeral that Welheminah’s husband was behind her not being there, said Mamikie.
During Rasuge’s funeral at the Temba Stadium on Saturday, speaker after speaker said people needed to speak out about the abuse of women. A neighbour of the Rasuges encouraged mourners to expose abusers and for women who are being abused to be strong and resilient.
That message struck a chord with the sisters. Now they are heeding the call to stand up against the abuse of women.
“We knew what was going on with Francis and we kept quiet.
“But now we won’t do it any more. It is high time we speak out… we are tired of abuse,” said Mamikie. Rose said the family was asking for help on Welheminah’s behalf.
She said that since Welheminah got married in 2007, she had visited the family only four times. “They should rather divorce because we cannot take this any more.
“She only came home when they were fighting and that’s when we learned of the abuse,” said Rose. The sisters said the abuse was putting such as a strain on the family that it was painful just talking about Welheminah. “Our mother is hurting. The entire family is fed up,” she said.
The family had very little contact with Welheminah as a result of the abuse.
“We don’t have her number and when she calls us she uses a private number. All we are asking for is that we get help to bring her back home,” said Rose.
The sisters are planning to report the abuse to the police, and they hope action will be taken before Welheminah returns to Korea.
“We’ve had enough. We are sick and tired of this,” said Rose.
karabo.seanego@inl.co.za
Pretoria News