HIV-infected woman wins long battle for justice

Sergeant Lina Antoinette Ndishishi (34), an SA Air Force member whose ex-partner concealed his HIV-positive status and infected her with the virus, has finally won a seven-year legal battle to hold him to account. A Daily Maverick report says Ndishishi’s efforts were vindicated when the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court convicted former SANDF member Leon Santos Conga of attempted murder and rape for failing to disclose his HIV status and infecting her with the virus. He will be sentenced on 7 August. Ndishishi was represented by AfriForum’s private prosecution unit, which has been supporting her since 2018. ‘I won my case. I am very happy and so proud of myself. This win will not change my HIV-positive status but it will definitely help other people,’ she said. ‘I feel very relieved … because now I feel like maybe there’ll be a woman out there that won’t be afraid; that won’t tell herself, “We’ve never had such a case in this country.” People shouldn’t be afraid.’ When Ndishishi, who became suicidal when she was diagnosed, contacted Conga – the only person with whom she’d had sexual relations – for answers he denied culpability and refused to go to a hospital with her to be tested.

She reported the matter at the Pretoria West Police Station where police told her she was wasting her time, as there had ‘never been such a case in the history of SA’ – a statement she later discovered was untrue, notes the DM. ‘(The SAPS personnel) asked me how old I was and I told them I was 27-years-old. I was told that women my age live a promiscuous lifestyle. I remember I was asked by one of the constables how sure I was that it was indeed (Conga) that had infected me. I told him that I knew it was him because I was only involved with him,’ said Ndishishi. ‘They never took a statement from me. This was in early May. I actually only wrote my first official statement with the SAPS in July 2017.’ She also initially got no help from the NPA. ‘With the first prosecutor that I got – it was a male, African prosecutor – I scheduled an appointment with him and I told him, “Listen, I’m not getting any positive response from the SAPS. What’s actually happening?’’ she recalled. ‘He took my statement out, pushed it in front of me and said, “Your statement is actually quite long, I’m not gonna read it. And your case is actually not going to go anywhere, you’re just wasting your time”.’ At that stage, the prosecutor had not accessed her medical records or Conga’s for evidence.

During the trial, Ndishishi learnt that there had been a previous case like hers in SA – a man named Mphikeleli Lovers Phiri was convicted of attempted murder in 2013 for having unprotected sex with a complainant while knowing that he was HIV-positive. She was also assigned a new prosecutor from the NPA, Advocate Emile van der Merwe, who made her feel far more comfortable and supported than the previous one. When Magistrate Fikiswa Ntlati convicted Conga of rape, it was because Ndishishi had only consented to have sex with him on the understanding that he was HIV-negative. The court accepted her testimony that if Conga had disclosed his status, she would not have agreed to have sex with him. When the couple had discussed the issue, he had withheld this information from her. He was convicted of attempted murder because he knowingly infected her with a virus that has the potential to kill, notes the DM. 

Full Daily Maverick report