Only nine out of every 100 child rape cases reported in South Africa resulted in a conviction in 2001 - but proposed legal and procedural changes in rape prosecution may turn the tide against the sexual abuse of children in 2003.
South Africa's rape rate has the dubious distinction of being one of the highest in the world, with 58 children a day estimated to be victims of rape or attempted rape during 2001.
Last year Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said police had handled almost 16 000 cases of rape or attempted rape for children aged 17 or younger between January and September 2001.
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According to a report released by the South African Institute of Race Relations last month, minors were the victims in two out of every five rape or attempted rape cases.
We want to change 'without her consent' to 'under coercive circumstances' The report said only half of all rape cases involving children reported to the police ended up in court in 1999, with more than 8 000 cases being withdrawn during police investigations or in court.
In 1998, following widespread public outrage over South Africa's frighteningly high rape statistics, the South African Law Commission initiated a study into how rape was defined and prosecuted.
The Sex Offences Project committee will publish the results of this four-year study in about a month, said committee member Bronwyn Pithey, who is a senior state advocate at the Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit of the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions in the Western Cape.
Pithey hopes the report will prompt re-examination of how rape is defined in South African law, and result in a greater number of successful convictions.
At present, the common law definition of rape describes it as "intentional unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent".
'The survivors don't go to the police station' According to Pithey, rape must involve the penetration of a vagina by a penis, so an abuser who sodomises his victim cannot be found guilty of rape.
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