MHM Magazine

42 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 2022 | Issue 6 MHM April 2021 - South Africa woke up to shocking and inhumane Facebook, Twitter and YouTube videos of a women who was being brutally beaten by a group of men, and it was reported that she was later burned due to ‘mob justice’. She was 59-year-old Jostina Sangweni, and it was later discovered through the family that she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and then taken to a nearby religious healer where the incident took place. Because of her condition, she found a way to escape from the religious healer’s house. She then went to hide in a nearby house where a man saw her and assumed she was sent to bewitch him, judging by her attire, dreadlocks, and elusive answers. This man and his friend acted violently towards her and eventually dragged her outside their yard, opposite the man’s home and this was when some of the community members joined to watch. The man was said to have asked two younger adult males to go and buy petrol in a nearby petrol station, which they then poured over Ms Sangweni, who at this time seemed to not understand what was happening to her. She was then set on fire. Ms Sangweni was later taken to hospital where she passed away. This case showed the limited mental health education, particularly in rural communities, with its stigmas being perpetuated by socio-cultural norms. MENTAL ILLNESS & THE COMMUNITY What is often considered to be a person with mental illness by community members is a person who is dirty, maybe showing violent behaviour, talking to themselves, walking and picking up trash, etc. This is the picture that community members have of an individual who may have psychiatric disorders and not of a person who may be clean, calm, capable of conversing, with some level of understanding and daily functioning. Due to the nature of the individual’s behaviour, the stigma of mental illnesses increases and sows confusion, resulting in those individuals being thought of as lazy, rude, irresponsible, misbehaving, or difficult to get along with. Such labels Fikile M Mnisi Inkanyeti Foundation Founder and Director mnisimf@gmail.com (+27) 79 097 2994 THE PERVASIVE STIGMA SURROUNDING MENTAL HEALTH