Anglican priest Reverend June Dolley-Major is to approach the state to take up the cause of victims who were raped and sexually abused, as successfully done in other countries.
Dolley-Major concluded a six week- walk from Cape Town to Makhanda where she was allegedly raped by a fellow priest in 2002. She has been in a protracted battle for justice.
"Some victims are too scared to come forward and report the alleged abuse despite having confided that they had been raped by priests. I will now approach the Minister of Justice to delve into the historical sexual offences and lay criminal charges," said Dolley-Major.
She said the state’s intervention, like elsewhere in the world, was needed. In the United States, Australia and France the church was held accountable for being "complicit" in not reporting or taking action against alleged perpetrators of sexual offences.
In October an Anglican church tribunal found Rev Melvin Booysen not of rape.
The tribunal said there was "no evidence" of Dolley-Major laying allegations or informing her bishop prior to 2016 and no corroboration of the allegations.
“We do not find her account consistent with the series of circumstantial factors in the story. Booysen is not her rapist,” said the ruling.
During the 41 day "walk in my shoes - the shoes of a rape survivor " journey to Makhanda, Dolley-Major said survivors reached out to her including civil rights activist, Celesthea Pierang, with "horrible" accounts of abuse.
"There's a need to establish safe spaces for survivors to come out and share their stories. Behind every statistic there's a face and a painful story to be told. That's why we now need to fight for rapists and paedophiles to be held accountable, together with those who might be complicit," said Dolley-Major.
Among the victims was a 73-year-old woman who was allegedly raped as a child and was too ashamed to speak out.
"We also spent time at a children's home, spoke to women and men who were survivors, including a 19 year-old woman whose family wanted to disown her because she reported a rape incident. The stories were traumatic and horrendous," Dolley-Major said.
She described the journey as being symbolic of the turmoil that rape survivors experienced in trying to deal with the aftermath.
"When we reached the Wilderness, we were struck by the scenic beauty of the area. We walked along the beach. It was tougher than walking on the tarred road. Sometimes we look at external beauty and yet survivors are going through hurt and pain," she added.
When Dolley-Major reached Makhanda, she said “I just fell to my knees”.
“There’s no words to describe how I felt. We had to be vigilant of baboons along the way. My feet had blisters after the first day of the journey but we could not give up. We kept pushing through the pain. We came out victorious - that’s the journey of rape survivors”, she said.
Dolley-Major hoped that with the state’s intervention more people would come forward and be able to "find closure".