It was Friday night when my mother Suzan Mashamba started having severe labor contractions she was in labor, my father who had came back for the weekend took my mother to the nearest hospital at Nkhensani hospital at Giyani ,where me and my twin sister were born , 25 December 1997 , the whole Nkomo village came to see us , it was the very first time many of the villagers had seen twins of deferent sexes, growing up was not easy my life was difficult, my mother worked at the primary school I was attending and my father was working at the Johannesburg municipality , my father was a strict man and somehow I believed he loved my sister more than me.

I remember one time when he came back from joburg he asked me and my sister to count form 1 to hundred, I skipped 6 and my sister counted successfully, she was rewarded with Christmas clothing and I got none , at school I received a lot of criticism because of my home situation , learners used to say my mother is a principal of kitchen soup, this was a everyday treatment from the learners, my mother was trying her level best to provide for me and my other 5 siblings she would bring home , mealies , stamp and me and my sister had to take it to nearest kitchen grinder in the village of Nkomo to grind it until it was fine like flour , that was our everyday food for breakfast, lunch and super , whenever it would rain me and my twin sister and the other older siblings would wake up to collect water from the roof by placing the bucket on the corners of the house outside, when the bucket was full we put another one until all 50 buckets are full this we did because water was quite expensive in our village and we needed water to survive, every Friday afterschool my mother will take us to the matungutungu mountain to pray and fast until Monday , she said we needed to beg God for a better life .

I remember it like it was yesterday when we would come back from the matungutungu mountain we went home not knowing what to eat after the fast and we had to go home ,bath and go to school with hungry stomachs. Later that summer on our way to the farms to reap what we have sowed sweet potatoes, pumpkins and my favorite water melon , when we meet a prophet from our church covenant ministries , he was also a prestigious respected leader in the community he said to my mother that this summer was going to be the worst summer ever ! My father will bring back a woman and my mother must not fight , my mother responded “ my husband will never do such me and our children” Mr mabasa responded then where is the money that he works for ? , will you be suffering like this if he wasn’t living with another woman at Johannesburg? , my mother ignored him and we continued reaping.

My father indeed came back home for Christmas, he had bought a car , when me and my twin sister rhandzu ran outside we were exited, my father stepped out of the car and opened the boot for us we took out a lot of grocery , then the woman stepped out of the car , honestly she was very beautiful had no spot at all , she was a yellow bone her name was katleho Thotsejane she was a Sotho speaking woman , my mother came outside to speak to my father he just said Suzan this is your sister wife respect her , katleho immediately went to the kitchen and started preparing food , I was sent to the tuck-shop to buy chicken spice , it was my first time hearing that word that I sang it all the way , katleho cooked the most delicious food I have ever eaten in my life , I licked my fingers .one afternoon katleho and my father went for a outing and had a accident, they hit a man who was carrying 35 Kg of maize meal on the head , my father called the ambulance and the police to report this case , when police arrived the man who was laying there helplessly disappeared , that’s when katleho accused my mother of witchcraft, later after that katleho moved back to Joburg with my father , many said she went to consult voodoo witches , to bewitch my family, for after she left , my two oldest brothers went crazy like literally crazy, they would go into people’s houses open refrigerator and start eating, I personally thought it was because of the poverty we were facing , they community reported this and my two oldest brothers were taken to vuxakeni mental institution in Giyani.

When I was in grade 7 I met the love of my life Christina chauke , she was a orphan and stayed with her aunt , my mother loved her accepted her , everything went well in our relationship, until I impregnated her in grade 10 , at that moment I knew I had to do something with my life , I knew I had to quit school and find a better job when my father heard about what had happened he came back home and gave me the beating of my life , my twin sister on the other hand was doing well academically she was given money for Christmas clothing and as usual I received none , me and my friends thought of a plan of making money.

we went to town and asked
To do people’s gardens everyday afterschool, we were not paid much but it was better than nothing some would give 10 rand and others would give 12 rand if we were lucky even 15 rand , I used to take that money and save , but the money was not enough and we had to think of another plan fast , we diced to buy smart phones with the money we had saved , we created fake Facebook accounts and pretended to be white woman , we target rich white man , and a few black man we would ask them to send their private parts then find their partners and start blackmailing them , they would send big amounts of money and I was personally able to support my son ntiyiso , and my family at last we successfully completed matric , Christine was accepted at the university and my twin sister at the college, life became better but I couldn’t stop scamming people I had to provide for both my sister, son and my mother. Hence I could not go to tertiary.

Christine started to change towards me when she was doing her second year in LLB law , she told me she found someone better I was shuttered I thought of all the sacrifices I made for her to be where she is , I started drinking like never before to escape reality , I lost faith in God why was all this happening to me ? What have I done to deserve this life? , nevertheless I passed that stage in my life my twin sister graduated from the college and got a good job life was better for all of us until she got married and had to go away , she sent money to my mother for grocery that was the least she could do , I started feeling insecure about myself and attempted suicide 3 times , none was successful.

I decided to visit my selfish father in joburg, the house was beautiful it was gigantic I was told I had to make an appointment to see my own father , katleho had a son by now , I envied him he had everything a male child could ask for , I had no money to go back home and non one could help me from this situation, I met a Chinese man mr Wuhan , who was a medical doctor I told him everything about my life, and ge offered me a job as a receptionist I worked with Mr Wuhan And I was able to send money back home to my mother, his daughters name was Xiao it was not long until we fell in love, Mr Wuhan wasn’t happy about our relationship he said I should be a somebody in this life if I want to marry his daughter , I explained to his daughter that I do not want to lose my job , for Mr Wuhan would fire me if I continued the relationship and there is no way I can be a somebody.

Xiao tried to convince her father but Mr Wuhan still refused, I saved every cent I had for my admission point score was very low and universities kept on rejecting me , Xiao secretly paid for my nursing studies at rose bank college, after three years of full time work and part time study , my mother called everyone back home for a urgent meeting, we all. Went home I was very surprised to see my father at home , he looked very sick , his hair was even falling off , my mother told us he had hiv and Aids and was left with three days to live “ why is he here “? I asked in anger. My mother responded katleho wants nothing to do with him , she took everything they built together and changed insurance papers to benefit her and mojalefa their son , My twin sister wanted to fight for the insurance papers but my father refused, he was still selfish even in his sick bed , my father apologised for his actions and died on the spot , no one wanted to contribute money to help bury him I took my savings and gave him a dignified funeral, my mother tested for hiv and she was hiv posetive I made sure that she eats healthy and takes her medication, the following year I graduated it was like a dream come true for me when I heard my name Ripfumelo Mashamba , my mother was so proud of me , she hugged me tight , Mr Wuhan paid for my wedding with Xiao .I peserved

***
Tell us: What are your thoughts about this story?