characters > glory legodi

Glory Legodi’s story

"I want to encourage people not to give up."

• Before the film
• Glory's battle to get justice
• Glory's daughters today
• Glory gets heard
• 12 months after the film - November 2003

Before the film

Glory Legodi is the mother of twin daughters. When they were two, the girls were raped and sodomised by a man Glory regarded as a trusted friend, who persuaded her to allow him to pick the twins up from pre-school every day.

Glory is not a woman to let life get the better of her. Before her daughters were born, their father had flown the coop, so she employed a full-time housekeeper and nanny to look after the twins, and she kept her job as a flight attendant with South African Airways.

After she became aware of the attack on her daughters, Glory attended a sexual assault survivors' group, hosted by Charlene Smith, which is where she met Cathy Henkel, the filmmaker. When Cathy first asked Glory if she was prepared to be filmed, Glory agreed immediately and said she hoped the film would support her attempts to get a petition together - which she planned to present to South African President Mbeki - and generally raise the profile of what needs to be done to combat sexual assault.

Glory's battle to get justice

When Cathy next met Glory (after the survivors' lunch), it was the day after she had attended a court hearing about the rape of her twin daughters and she was furious at the outcome.

The perpetrator, who lived four doors down the street from her, had been released on bail.

Glory said, "I was so depressed I couldn’t even have dinner. I had this terrible headache and I think maybe it must have been nerves, because I couldn’t just believe that they [were] remanding it to next year February. That’s four months. It’s too much!

"This is dangerous, you know. It’s like a virus, it’s like something - we should stop this now."

Her case was to drag on even longer.

The delays and problems with the justice system that Glory was experiencing were extremely common. But instead of just grumbling, Glory and her family took action. She poured all her rage into a petition to President Mbeki in the hope of drawing attention to these frustrations.

Glory called for a national education campaign to be run in all of South Africa's official languages.

Glory also suggested that Cathy, the filmmaker, should visit the ANC Women’s League, a powerful women’s lobby group. She believed that if Cathy could speak to Nelson Mandela, it might be possible to get some action for her twins and for Cathy's mother, Laura.

Glory's daughters today

Glory's daughters live in fear and only feel safe when the burglar doors are locked and the alarm is armed. They always remind their mother and nanny to switch on the alarm. The man who abused them lives down the road, and Glory believes they are in real danger.

"I’ve denied him the chance of killing them by locking them in the house all the time."

Glory gets heard

Glory finally collected over 10,000 signatures for her petition, and presented it to the President’s Office in Pretoria. But she wasn’t stopping there.

She asked Cathy to help her write letters to the Justice Minister and the Minister for Safety and Security.

"I want the President to stop giving these people bail," Glory said.

Following extensive community pressure, the South African government was beginning to acknowledge the extent of the crisis and was making the campaign against sexual assault a priority. Glory’s letters and her petition eventually got the attention of officials high up in the system.

Glory: "My letters are everywhere. In all the government departments, people keep on saying, 'But who is this Glory Legodi?' Some are on the corridors with the files, they say, 'I should contact Glory Legodi. I should go and see this Glory'. It’s amazing.

"I can see a light. There is a light there at the end of the tunnel. It’s shining brightly. You know, they [are] all involved. They [are] all concerned. They [are] telling me over the telephone, when they come here.

"I want to help women and children because I think that there’s a big gap there. People are struggling and I realised that people you know get tired when they’re busy with their cases and something goes wrong, they just say, 'Agh, I’m just going to leave it at that'. Because, you know, it's so tiring.

"You know, you can’t just go on without any light, so people give up most of the time. I want to encourage people not to give up."

12 months after the film - November 2003

It was almost two years since Glory's daughters were raped and sodomised. Nothing was happening.

A senior prosecutor told Glory that the case wouldn't go to court that year [2003] because she didn't want her daughters questioned by a stranger.

Glory returned to the Department of Safety and Security and they referred her to the National Director of Prosecutions.

"One lady promised me, an advocate, promised me - I can't say promised again - this one I don’t know, I’ve got that hope. I think she gonna do something. My last hope is the National Director of Prosecutions."

Meanwhile, Glory's daughters aren't attending school and live at home like "they're in jail": the only place Glory knows they will be safe. She will not risk letting them outside because the perpetrator still lives locally. He has even attempted to kill her.

Find out more...

 Mini-doc transcript - Glory's story