After 41 days and a gruelling journey on foot of more than 900km, Reverend June Dolley-Major reached Makhanda at the weekend and went to the house where, she alleged, a fellow Anglican priest raped her almost 20 years ago.
Dolley-Major, 52, has in recent years become vocal about the incident and has publicly named the minister whom she accuses of raping her.
As part of her latest campaign, she walked 900km from Sir Lowrey’s Pass, near Cape Town, to Makhanda to empower rape survivors.
When she reached the house on Saturday afternoon, she said: “This house is my crime scene.
“It was in this house where the reverend thought it fit to come into my bedroom.
“He chose to open my door and violate me in the most gruesome way.”
Dolley-Major did not go inside the house, which was in a dilapidated state, on Saturday.
Reflecting on her visit to the property in October 2020, Dolley-Major said she took her power back on that day.
She had initially thought that she would only lay a bouquet of flowers at the gate and pray, but later found herself inside the bedroom where she says she was raped.
“When I stepped into that room for the first time after he [allegedly] raped me I was numb.
“I could not move or speak and I was transported right back to that night.
“I fell down and managed to crawl into the passage and wept.
“At that moment, I moved from pain to power.
“As I stand here again today, I have no intention of picking up those tears I left behind.”
Dolley-Major encouraged rape survivors to reclaim their power and to pursue their dreams and aspirations.
“In saying his name I have taken my power back.”
In September, Dolley-Major won a case against the alleged perpetrator in the Western Cape High Court after he sought to interdict her from talking about him publicly and in social media posts.
She has previously embarked on a six-day hunger strike and camped in a tent in front of an Anglican archbishop’s home in her bid to get justice.
She relayed her ordeal during a tribunal of the Anglican Church, which took place under canon law.
The tribunal found the priest not guilty.
Grocott’s Mail reported in October 2020 that police were reinvestigating Dolley-Major’s complaint after the director of public prosecutions had declined to prosecute.
Dolley-Major will return to Cape Town this week.
HeraldLIVE