Almost 18 years ago, a study reported that on average, a woman was raped every 26 seconds in South Africa. This coincided with the brave decision by Charlene Smith, a journalist, to share the intimate details of her own rape, and an advertisement by Charlize Theron calling for an end to rape in South Africa.
There was a national outcry - rape was rampant in this young democracy and it seemed there was little political will to stop it. In February 2000, when the minister of justice and the minister of safety and security were asked about the “rape crisis” on international television, Steve Tshwete, then minister in charge of the SAPS, brushed it off, stating:
“We want to dismiss with contempt this whole notion that South Africa is a rape case,” he said.
“The rape capital of the world is a very silly notion that is intended to tarnish the image of our country.”
Context can be found here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/every-26-seconds/
The minister went on to callously remark: “We’ve been standing here for 26 seconds and no one has been raped.”
Flash forward to today, May 2017, and it feels like nothing has changed. If you look at the crime stats reported by government, 52000 rapes were reported in 1999. Last year, for the period 2015-2016, 51895 sexual offences were reported, an average of 142.2 a day. In the same year, 42596 rapes were reported.
Despite the reduction in the number of rapes from 1999, the Institute for Security Studies, Rape Crisis, Sonke Gender Justice, and Rock Girl, along with other civil society organisations are concerned that many more cases go unreported.
Women and girls, and members of the LBGTI community, as well as some boys and men, are still silenced, afraid to speak out about when they are raped, sexually abused or attacked. This silence is destroying our families, our communities, our country.
And yet, since 2000, there have been positive changes. Immediately following the statement by Tshwete, the cabinet urged all ministers involved in the prevention, detection, and prosecution of rape to find solutions. In June 2000, the first Thuthuzela Rape Care Centre was opened at Jooste Hospital in Manenberg. The first case seen by the centre was two boys who had narrowly escaped a gang rape. I was there that night when the boys were examined by the doctor, counselled and given medical treatment and clean clothes.
It was gratifying to see the difference when victims were treated as patients and as human beings. Since that night, thousands of rape survivors have been treated at one of the 53 Thuthuzela Centres located in hospitals around the country. Advocate Thoko Majokweni, who was head of the Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Division of the National Prosecuting Authority in 2000, launched Thuthuzela and has championed the rights of rape survivors ever since.
She and others in government and civil society have worked tirelessly to draft new Sexual Offences legislation, create Sexual Offences courts (only to watch them be closed, then opened up again), and advocate for more funding to prevent, investigate and prosecute sexual offences.
But the struggle continues, with heartbreaking, soul-destroying cases the norm instead of the exception.
Despite their valiant efforts, despite the statistics, despite the fact that every parent lives in fear that their child might be the next victim, South Africa still doesn’t devote adequate resources to fighting sexual violence. Women and girls, especially, feel like they are living on the front lines in the battle for their safety and the safety of their own bodies, every single day. The front lines are in their own homes, at their schools, on public transport, at work, and everywhere in-between. It can happen at any time, anywhere.
In the majority of cases, the girls and women tell us that they have not reported the crime, or that if they have, they were not believed.
Last year, after two teenage girls, Franziska Blochliger and Sinoxolo Mafevuka, were raped and murdered in the span of a few weeks in Cape Town, those working on gender-based violence rallied together, acknowledging the vast inequality that still exists in South Africa’s justice system, and in our communities, but also agreeing that rape impacts women across race, class, age, and economic divides.
These two girls’ stories made the headlines, but there are countless more that remain hidden, or ignored. There was hope at the time that our national and provincial leaders would act - by finally allocating the resources needed to enact a National Plan to fight sexual violence. There was hope after Anene Booysens was raped and killed in Bredasdorp.
Unfortunately, since 1999, there has been no unified response from our national leaders. After more than two decades working to end violence against women, against children, against everyone, many of us fear we will never succeed. And yet many of us keep working to educate girls, boys, everyone, that violence against anyone, especially those who are more vulnerable than you, is wrong, is against the law, is shameful. Rock Girl, an organisation that highlights challenges faced by women in Cape Town, teaches girls there is no shame if they are raped, that it is never, ever their fault.
And that they must speak out if they or anyone they know is sexually abused or violated. We are just one organisation among many who continue to advocate for a safer, more just, more equal world for girls and women. We don’t believe that all men are trash, but we do know that many men and boys have not been taught to respect girls and women.
Poverty and unemployment are never an excuse for rape. Culture is never an excuse for rape.
Last year, Rock Girl called for a national conversation, a sort of national “action commission” that travelled around the country to give survivors of sexual violence and rape a chance to speak out and find solutions, like we have done on our Road Trips. It seems this is needed now more than ever before. Our communities are crying out for help, from Elsies River to Rustenburg.
Last year, Médecins Sans Frontières released a report that found that one in five girls in Rustenburg had been raped. Rock Girl went there in October 2016. Girls told us they were too afraid to speak up, that violence was rife, that girls as young as 8 and 9 were raped, and that they were threatened every day. This is the reality. Not just in Rustenburg, but across the country. We are all living on the front lines and we have been for a very long time. Today it is up to every one of us to speak up to end violence against girls and women. And more importantly, to demand that those in power do the same.
Baird is founder of Rock Girl, and the former director of the Bureau of Justice
Assistance, responsible for
setting up the Thuthuzela Rape Care Centre pilot in 1999