Everyone’s role to stop abuse of women, children

Faith Mazibuko

Not a single day goes by without rape being mentioned in the media. Almost every day we wake up to a story about the violation of vulnerable groups. You turn on the television or the radio and the bulletins carry a new rape story. Rape.co.za estimates that women born in SA have more chance of being raped than learning how to read.

A survey mentioned on the site found that of the 1 500 Soweto schoolchildren approached, 25 percent of the boys thought “jackrolling” (lingo for gang rape) was “fun”.

The rape statistics also showed that 25 percent of men who took part in a survey by the Medical Research Council admitted to raping someone.

It is estimated that more than half a million rapes are committed each year in SA. According to a study by Interpol, SA had the highest rate of rape in the world and a woman was raped every 17 seconds. The highest increase in attacks has been against children under seven, presumably because of the myth that sexual intercourse with a virgin cures a man of HIV or Aids.

What makes matters worse is the fact that in most cases the victims are raped by people they know.

Those who commit this crime even prey on the mentally handicapped.

Recently a young mentally challenged girl was gang-raped by youngsters and the video went viral.

Yet another mentally and physically handicapped young woman was raped, assaulted, stripped naked and dumped on rail tracks to mask the brutish act.

One is left to wonder, what kind of a person commits such a monstrous act?

A 10-year-old girl was reportedly sexually assaulted by a priest in Soweto. Rapists also hide behind the cloth, which is worrisome.

In February, the Department of Community Safety had more than 60 clergymen and women pledging to take sexual violence head-on, particularly if the perpetrator was one of their own.

Both parties said there was a need for paradigm shift, to rely not only on cases reported to the police. The clergy must assist in identifying victims in their congregations and refer them to shelters while they seek services of victim empowerment services such as Ikhaya Lethemba, mandated to offer psychosomatic, medical and legal assistance to victims of abuse, especially women and children.

What has happened to ubuntu?

With Child Protection Week around the corner, what role are we playing to ensure that our children live free of abuse, especially sexual molestation? The new democratic dispensation advocates awareness about child abuse and exploitation, and children breaking their silence. The least every one of us can do is to assist to ensure that the light keeps burning.

l Faith Mazibuko is the MEC for Community Safety in Gauteng