Rape victim to successful businesswoman

43-year-old Verelyn Witbooi is nowhere near being an ordinary woman. 

When she was just 10-years-old Verelyn had gone away for a netball tournament that was meant to last the weekend. She decided she didn’t want to return home until Tuesday, although she knew she would land herself in hot water. 

To ease the situation, the then 10-year-old thought it would be a smart idea to meet her father at work instead of going straight home first. “I told myself that if I went to his job first, there was no way he could hit me in front of his colleagues,” Verelyn laughed.

To her surprise, by the time she arrived, her father had already left. 

“As I was about to make my way back to the train station, I got lost and came across two guys and a woman who asked me where I was going,” Verelyn said. 

“ I told them I was looking for my mother and they offered to help me find her,” she explained. 

Verelyn was then tricked into thinking they were going to the police station but on the way, the strangers offered her some food and suggested they also take her back to their home for her to freshen up before they continue looking for her mother.

“ After freshening up the lady suddenly said they’ll take me back tomorrow but tomorrow never came,” Verelyn said. 

Verelyn explained that she was locked in the house and the strangers kept bringing ‘new girls’ in and out. 

“We were being taught how to be prostitutes. As young as we were, these people would demonstrate what they wanted us to do,” she explained in disgust. 

On the night when Verelyn was taken out to use the new ‘skills’, she had been taught she would cry intensely.

“ I was sent out with a prostitute, who was meant to show me the ropes but each time a guy would pick me I would cry and they would luckily leave me. This carried on a few times until plans were made to take me to Venda,” Verelyn explained.

On the night that she was meant to be ‘’shipped off’’ one of the prostitutes helped her to escape. 

“ I ran for my life, went straight to the police station and was safely returned home,” Verelyn said. 

Upon returning home, Verelyn says she was no longer the same person as she had kept all the things she endured to herself and because of that she started being rebellious. 

“ I was filled with anger and pain and I felt like there was no one I could talk to. Before I knew it, I started drinking to subside my worries,” she explained 

One evening Verelyn and a friend went out, they ordered two beers and all she could remember was waking up while a man was raping her. 

“ I had completely blacked out and woke up to a line of other guys waiting for their turn and still I kept that experience to myself,” she explained. 

With all the things Verelyn had experienced and constantly being told she would never amount to anything, her life spiralled out of control and she found herself trapped in an abusive four-year marriage. 

“ After a lot of hard work, I managed to step out of that relationship and fight for my life,” she said. “I moved to Ventersdorp and I haven’t looked back since. Things were not at all easy but I kept trying with the little that I had,” she added 

Determined to assist the youth, Verelyn started an NPO called Youth on the Move. “I have always been very passionate about guiding and grooming young people,” she shared. 

Verelyn is also involved in other projects such as campaigns against bullying, body shaming, collaborations with Rekatleho SA footprints (RSF), prison programs with ex-convicts and above all, she is also the owner of Miss Vee production, where she grooms upcoming artists.

At the moment Verelyn says, funding is an issue, especially in the NPO projects she is involved in, however she is determined to push herself and others beyond their limits.

To hear more about Verelyn’s initiative, contact her on 084 252 8867.