Durban - Child rape in KwaZulu-Natal is reaching frightening proportions, with the perpetrators often related to victims and shielded from sanction because of family shame and cultural practices.
The Sonke Gender Justice Network said on Thursday that the cases that did come to light represented the tip of the iceberg because many more, especially in rural areas, were not being reported.
The rape of a 7-year-old girl, allegedly by her grandfather last week has sent shock waves through the northern KZN town of Mthunzini.
It followed the recent rape of a 14-year-old girl, also in northern KZN - allegedly by her 82-year-old grandfather.
The elderly man, a church pastor, allegedly repeatedly raped the girl until she fell pregnant.
Social Development MEC Weziwe Thusi, who sent a team of social workers to assist the 14-year-old girl, who is now eight months pregnant, last week removed the 7-year-old to a place of safety after some members of her family allegedly tried to cover up the incident.
“It is alleged that the old man followed the girl to a river where she was fetching water with her friends. He then sent her friends away and dragged the little girl into nearby bushes and raped her,” Thusi said.
“When the girl failed to return home her mother went looking for her and saw her coming out of the bushes with her underwear in her hand.”
Thusi said the girl then told her mother what her grandfather had allegedly done to her.
“The woman reported the matter to other elders in the family, who allegedly tried to sweep the matter under the carpet.”
She said social workers went to the girl’s aid on Wednesday to help her “start her long journey to recovery”.
The MEC said that had it not been for a member of the little girl’s family who informed her department about the incident, the case would have remained a family secret - only for the young girl to live with the trauma for the rest of her life.
At the time of the incident with the 14-year-old, Thusi had called it a national shame and a gross human rights violation, saying it painted a picture of a society that could not take care of its children.
Sonke Gender Justice Network’s deputy director, Desmond Lesejane, told the Daily News on Thursday that society needed to know that rape of children was a common national practice.
“One thing for sure is they (rape cases) are not being reported because of norms in society - that you don’t want to hang your dirty laundry in public,” he said.
“I am not surprised that those things (hiding of rape cases) are happening and it happens a lot in this country.”
Lesejane said: “Cover-ups are common. Sometimes we use our cultural issues to hide these things.
“A person who had just raped a child would cover up by paying for the damages of the child and these children are left to carry lifelong scars.”
He said every rape victim’s challenge was to carry on with life after being raped, and said they often did not recover.
“We want to tell communities that rape and violence are not a private affair. Victims are not healed and they will never be the same. We have heard old people coming out to report their rape cases years after they had been raped when they were still young,” Lesejane said.
“This thing cannot be just pushed under the carpet.”
Some of the motives for older men raping young children were various societal beliefs, he said.
“We have heard of stories of old men raping young girls especially virgins because they believe that raping or sleeping with a virgin would rejuvenate their blood.”
Lesejane said dialogue with authorities, religious leaders, traditional healers and society was required to address this.
Thusi said that after interviewing the 7-year-old and her mother on Wednesday, social workers removed her from the “environment that failed to protect her by taking appropriate action”.
“I am also happy to report that our social workers helped mother and daughter to report the matter to the police and we hope they will arrest the man soon.
“I would like to remind families and members of the public that rape is not a family matter regardless of who the perpetrator is.
“No amount of damages can make rape acceptable and rape, particularly child rape, is a heinous crime that must be reported for the perpetrators to be prosecuted,” she said.
KZN police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, confirmed that a case of rape had been opened at Mthunzini SAPS.
No arrests had been made and the investigations were continuing, Naicker said.
Daily News