The story of Nkebe (names and locations have been changed)

Nkebe was an ordinary high school girl from South Springs in the East Rand region of Gauteng. Her mother was a traditional healer and her father worked in the mines so he was hardly ever around. She fancied herself in a life of opulence and so naturally behaved in accordance with such. Things didn’t quite turn out that way though. She met Asiphelele, a street wise young man who’s father passed on while he was still a child. His father was a man of different tastes which led to bastard children by an assortment of women. The family feud which ensued led to the older children getting scattered all over the country without proper homes. Asiphele was one of them, splitting his life between living in the  Phelilanga homelands and visiting the South Springs township. Nkebe and Asiphele were soon in love and courted for quite some time. When he went back to the homelands she would visit him regularly and stay over during school holidays. Soon enough things got out of control.

Nkebe got Caught up in the habitual lifestyle of excessive drinking and partying. She began failing dismally in school and they began to see less and less of her at home. One night she took it too far. After another hectic night of binging, she and her then best friends Tholakala Readibona and Tebogo Maitshwaro caught a lift from some guys at a party. Tholakala and Tebogo were neighbours but not so big friends as such. Tebogo was a reserved, school loving girl who stuck to one boyfriend and stayed indoors but enjoyed having a good time whenever the opportunity presented itself. She was also Asiphelele’s cousin. Tholakala on the other hand was an all systems go type of girl who didn’t hold back and lived on the spur of the moment.

On this particular night the girls needed a place to sleep and so were taken to one of the boys residence. Each had a partner allocated to them with whom they would sleep with. Tholakala slept with her bedmate but that was no surprise. Tebogo rejected the demands of her partner and was relegated to sleeping on the cement floor. But Nkebe, who was still Asiphelele’s damsel at the time, should have known better. After her one night stint she even had the audacity to boast to her friends about the magnificent impression her close to anonymous partner had left her with. Sure enough in a town where most people know each other, whispers began to surface and Asiphelele found out. He showed her the door and rather than go back to her home, she moved in with Tholakala and the Readibona household. This included Tholakala and her two children, elder sister Rachel and her four children, as well as younger sister Kerometswi who had children on her mind.

The Readibona household was to become the primary sleeping quarters outside of Nkebe’s midnight romps with strange young men from the beerhalls, which had by now become a regular norm. Around the same time her mother became terminally ill. Nkebe and her mother never shared a good relationship so Nkebe was not concerned with her mother’s condition in any way. Her promiscuous behaviour accelerated at a disturbing rate with Tholakala as her now best friend and life coach. Tholakala’s morals were below acceptable with her own fair share of stories, a few of which would make you squeamish. So Nkebe’s street education would naturally rotate around sex, alcohol and abortions. Her mother eventually passed on and Nkebe didn’t bat an eyelid. She attended the funeral and returned just as quickly as she had left. Nkebe began a long line of conquests and a lot of these partners, young boys mostly and a few grown men as well, were not using protection. Even when she fell pregnant and her belly began to pop out, she continued to fornicate indifferently and stay out every possible night.

The pregnancy was eventually in full swing which forced Nkebe to slow down, but there was no father to claim the child. She attempted to pin it on a boy named Mafa. Mafa’s sister made some calculations and determined that her baby brother only dated Nkebe two months into the pregnancy so it was all dismissed as a myth. She went after Naaka next. A naïve and careless boy from around the way who had a good heart coupled with bad decision making. He bought the story hook, line and sinker. Naaka went the whole nine yards with pampers, accessories, toys and everything an expectant father could think of. Even after the babies birth he couldn’t tell the difference and Nkebe cemented the story by parading him as the biological father. She went back to her family in South Springs with the baby for about two months. Upon her return she was staying again with Tholakala’s  family.

The turning point happened when Tebogo came over for a visit to view the baby, with a brief glimpse it was immediately clear to her who the baby belonged to. Nkebe denied it and swore with her life on Naaka being the bearer of the crown. But eventually as more and more people saw the baby, the neighbourhood began to demand the truth. Asiphelele had to shove his pride to the side and see the baby with his own eyes. When he did, he saw his reflection and surrendered.They named the child Abegile. Nkebe had it in her mind that she and Asiphelele were still an item so she would bother him constantly. She even began making regular visits to his home again which led to sexual vows being renewed whilst he was still in a steady relationship with a college student by the name of Zamora, with whom he had recently had a baby with. The baby was one and a half months old and stayed with Zamora and her grandmother when not with him.

One day at Asiphelele’s home, while scrolling through messages on his phone, Nkebe didn’t like what she saw. Accusing Asiphelele of having an affair, she chewed up his sim card and smashed his phone. Asiphelele was furious and booted her out. Bags, baby and all. She slept at Tholakala’s house that night but older sister Rachel was beginning to lose her patience. The following morning Nkebe got up bright and early with Abegile. She steamed over to Asiphelele’s work place, dumped the baby on him and then returned casually to the Readibona’s home. Three full days flew by as Nkebe went out partying and boozing with Tholakala . She gallivanted the countryside without once checking on her own baby. Rachel became furious at this stage and gave her a fiery and very truthful talking to. According to her observations, Nkebe was sponging off the family without contributing a cent and never once going out to look for a job. All the while she dumped her child like a package so she can be free to engross herself in perverted and drunk behaviour around the neighbourhood without scruples. Nkebe got the message loud and clear and went to see Asiphelele the following day in the hopes that she could beg and plead her way back into his arms. She found him but he was not having it. He had decided since she wants to dump the baby on him, he and Zamora will raise Abegile along with their own and Nkebe must stay out of it. This was the one last very lonely dejected walk back to the Readibona’s for one more night of free boarding before being permanently vacated. Very early the next morning she was woken up and given taxi fare to go back to where she came in South Springs. The story doesn’t end there, but that’s for another day