The rape of South Africa

by Editor · August 3, 2009

A nation in which one in four women can expect to be raped in her lifetime is desperately failing its female population, and society in general.

The statistics of rape in South Africa are well known � perhaps so much so that they sometimes fail to shock. According to South African Police Services estimates, a rape takes place in South Africa every 35 seconds. In 2006, about 54,000 rapes were reported in South Africa � that is almost 150 per day, and one for every 925 people. South Africa�s rate of reported sexual violence is three times higher pro rata than it is in the United States. And only an estimated 5% of all rapes are reported.

The experts point to various constituents to account for South Africa�s rape epidemic: a patriarchal society in which women, even if protected by civil law, are commonly prevented from exercising their rights, especially sexual autonomy; a culture of violence in which aggression is displaced and directed at weaker members of society; a system of law enforcement and justice which fails to punish rapists for their crimes, with the consequence that few of the cases actually reported result in a conviction.

Deplorably, a significant number of South Africans routinely trivialise sexual assault. Some believe that a victim �enjoys� the assault; others blame her for attracting rape by the clothes she wears. And not a few South Africans believe it justifiable that lesbians should be raped to �correct� their sexual orientation.

Comments made by supporters of President Jacob Zuma during and after his rape trial � at which he was acquitted � suggest that an enlightened view on sexual violence has not taken firm root in South Africa.

The stigma of rape seems to weigh heavier on the victim than it does on her attacker. In this respect, South Africa certainly is not unique. Worldwide, it takes an admirable measure of courage for a survivor of rape to speak publicly about her experience.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church condemns rape strongly: �Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right�It is always an intrinsically evil act,� and child-rape even more so (para 2356). And yet, faced with responding pastorally to instances of sexual violence, Church leaders often stumble.

The recent furore in Brazil over the public excommunication of those involved in the abortion of twins conceived by a nine-year-old girl who had been raped by her stepfather is one such case. Archbishop Jos� Cardoso Sobrinho of Recife, now retired, went to extraordinary lengths to affirm the Church�s teaching that no abortion is licit even under extraordinary circumstances.

Whatever pastoral care Bishop Sobrinho provided privately to the girl and her family, he failed to communicate as forthrightly the Church�s condemnation of the evil act that led to the little girl�s pregnancy because, as he put it, abortion is a greater sin than rape. This depreciated the girl�s ordeal.

Even today, many Catholics celebrate the child saint Maria Goretti for having fought off her would-be rapist so as to retain her �virtue�. This conveys a distressing stigma: that a rape damages feminine �virtue�, as though being raped is an act which involves consent. This is clearly wrong, even when the victim under duress submits to the violence. St Maria Goretti�s heroism resides not in an anachronistic view of sexual virtue, but in her willingness to forgive her attacker.

As the statistics show, in South Africa the state and civil society clearly are not doing enough to rise up against the incidence of rape. We cannot allow ourselves to be silent any longer.