Last week I went through my phone to read the news online and within minutes, I was doing everything in my power to stop the avalanche of tears that was cascading down my face. It had been a while since I felt that helpless and betrayed – and I struggled immeasurably to make sense of what was happening.

Various news articles were published across several news sites, all of them screaming with headlines about a high-ranking member of the African National Congress in Mpumalanga who had been arrested for the alleged rape of his young daughters...