The South African Women Lawyers’ Association has noted with concern the remarks made by Madam Justice Jansen that “Rape is a black men’s favourable pastime”.
She uttered these racist, insulting and defamatory statements on her Facebook site and in conversation with someone who she should be mentoring for the betterment of South Africa, yet there she is negatively reflecting along racial lines.
It is perturbing when these remarks are penned by a person who should be an inspiration in the transformation and respect of fellow human beings.
To refer to some of her colleagues along racist lines shutters the country as a whole. “BLACK Colleagues…”
Violence against women, in all its forms, is a worldwide problem.
The World Health Organisation reports that “the proportion of women suffering sexual violence by non-partners after the age of 15 varies from less than 1 percent between non-partners in their lifetime.
In Canada, a study of adolescents aged 15 to 19 found that 54 percent of girls had experienced “sexual coercion in a dating relationship”. It is highly inappropriate to reduce it to a problem of black men.
These comments will, unfortunately, distort the discourse on violence against women. Violence against women is still a hidden problem.
It is also a known fact that, unfortunately, there is a relation between race, class and violence against women.
The judge is skirting the issues on how society must eliminate gender-based violence, but only seeks to look at the problem with prejudice against blacks.
The members of the South African Women’s Lawyers Association dedicate their time to raise awareness in communities about gender-based violence; we advocate for the protection of women’s rights and for an address of the social stereotypes that make men to feel justified in perpetrating violence against women.
The experience generally is that violence against women has no colour, age or status.
More and more people are opening up about the trauma that they suffered through sexual violation, and this is happening not only along racial lines as stated by Judge Jansen. Instead, families have been locked in and raped by their own father, and these were not black fathers. Farmworkers are, daily, made victims of rape by their employers.
Rape sickness cannot be seen along race lines, and Judge Jansen does not deserve to hold the office of a judge, and must go
Noxolo Maduba
Sawla: South African Women Lawyers’ Association