rape

According to a comment published on The Citizen website, rape in South African prisons is a terrible reality that has severe consequences for the psychological and physical health of victims.

Rape is not a subject to be treated lightly, least of all by anyone representing any section of our criminal justice system.

The comments follow an incident in which spokesperson for the crime fighting unit, The Hawks, McIntosh Polela, tweeted that, “I trust that Jub Jub’s supporters gave him a jar of Vaseline to take to prison.

Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, says escalating incidents of sexual offences against children and the mentally disturbed demand decisive intervention.

Speaking at a one-day interactive dialogue on sexual violence against children and adolescents in Meadowlands, south-west of Johannesburg, Xingwana stressed the need for a platform for young victims of sexual offences.

The emotional pain caused to rape victims by their perpetrators might last for a lifetime but with counselling and family support victims can live a positive life afterwards.

With these words, Childline spokesperson, Lyn Caywood, is encouraging parents of three Soweto girls who were allegedly raped numerous times by their cousin to bring them to their centre for counselling.

Caywood describes the incident as a tragedy, adding that young people are adopting what they see happening in society.

Aid workers are investigating reports that at least 60 women have been raped near the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Fizi.

The mass rapes were allegedly committed by a group of ex-rebels who recently deserted the army, which they had joined under a peace deal.

Troops from the same group were recently convicted of raping at least 50 women in Fizi on New Year's Day.

A shocking report released by Transparency International blames poor teacher training frequent teacher absenteeism, and a critical lack of textbooks and libraries for the country's poor quality of education.

Titled ‘Lessons Learned: Primary Education in Cameroon and South Africa’, the report also reveal that one in four children said schools are unsafe and that rape and violence are major problems.

The Sonke Gender Justice Network has accepted African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema’s apology for his demeaning comments about President Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser.

Sonke executive director, Dean Peacock, says his organisation welcome the apology, but also notes that, “It has been 16 months since the Equality Court made the ruling.”

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has urged young people to be the agents of change in South Africa.

Addressing children between the ages of 15 and 17 at the annual Tutu Youth Peace Summit in Cape Town, Tutu reminded them how lucky they are to be South Africans, adding that, “if you were born in the Democratic Republic of Congo you girls would almost all of you have been raped, maybe killed or maybe a refugee.”

He also urged the children to have the courage of the 1976 youth.

Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko, says incidents of corrective rape are on the rise in the province.
 
Speaking after visiting the family of Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24-year-old lesbian activist who was found raped and murdered in Kwa-Tema, Johannesburg, Mazibuko, urged communities to work together to stamp out these ‘inhumane criminal acts’.  
 

About 25 rights activists from Luleki Sizwe, a small group of lesbian activists in the townships of Cape Town, have marched outside Parliament against rapes targeting lesbians in South Africa.

Speaking during the demonstration, which happened at the time when their leaders were meeting with government representatives, one of the demonstrators, Eugene Brockman, said they want the government to label corrective rape as a hate crime.

Aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has reported that more than 30 women were raped in a coordinated attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on new year's day.

In a press statement, Annemarie Loof, an official with the medical aid organisation, points out that, “Women had been restrained with ropes or beaten unconscious with the butt of a gun before being attacked, some in front of their children."