In Beaten but not Broken, Vanessa Govender tells a graphic story of extreme abuse, living with the pain and ultimately how she was saved by her own relentless fighting spirit to find purpose and love.

The book will be launched in September, at Love Books in Melville and Vovo Telo Ballito in Durban. Save the date!

At the height of her journalism career, more than one million households across the country knew her name and her face. Her reportage on human suffering and triumph captivated viewers, and with it Govender shot to fame as one of the first female Indian television news reporters in South Africa.

Yet Govender, a champion for society’s downtrodden, was hiding a shocking story of her own. In Beaten but not Broken, she finally opens up about her deepest secret – one that so nearly ended her career in broadcast journalism before it had barely kicked off.

She was a rookie reporter at the SABC in 1999. He was a popular radio disc jockey at a radio station catering to nearly half a million Indian people across South Africa. They were the perfect pair, or so it seemed. Behind the scenes the bruising punches, the cracking slaps, and the relentless episodes filled with beatings, kicking and strangling were as ferocious as the emotional and verbal abuse he hurled at her. No one would know the brutal and graphic details of Govender’s story … until now.

We owe her the dignity of reading her story, seeing her pain, saluting her bravery and creating a space for other abused women to know they can step out of the shadows and end the silence. – Deborah Patta

When a cut heals, the scar lies that the suffering is over. In this poignant account, Vanessa finds the courage to turn herself inside out, to show her deep wounds and to ‘tell’. – Iman Rappetti

Categories Non-fiction South Africa South African Current Affairs

Tags Beaten but not Broken Book events Book launches Durban Jacana Media Johannesburg Love Books Vanessa Govender Vovo Telo