Quarter of men in South Africa admit rape, survey finds

[[R_H]]

guardian.co.uk

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.

Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.

South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The study into rape and HIV, by the country's Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.

Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

Jewkes and her colleagues interviewed a representative sample of 1,738 men in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.

The study, which had British funding, also found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV-positive. They are also more likely to pay for sex and to not use condoms.

Any woman raped by a man over the age of 25 has a one in four chance of her attacker being HIV-positive.

One in 10 men said they had been forced to have sex with another man. Many find it difficult to report such attacks to the police in subcultures where the concept of homosexuality is taboo.

South Africa's government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to address the crisis. Only 7% of reported rapes are estimated to lead to a conviction. Jewkes said: "There's been a lot of concern about the way the criminal justice system works, because it's still woeful."

Before his election as president, Jacob Zuma stood trial for the rape of a family friend. His supporters demonstrated at the court house, verbally attacked his accuser and sang "burn the bitch, burn the bitch". Zuma was eventually acquitted.

Jewkes added: "The social space for debating these gender issues is now smaller than it was a few years ago. We need our government to show political leadership in changing attitudes. We need South African men, from the top to the grassroots, to take responsibility."

Anti-rape campaigners said the shocking figures demonstrated the need for reform. Dean Peacock, co-director of the Sonke Gender Justice project, said: "We need to make sure the criminal justice system is held to account. We have lots of discussion in this country, but not enough action is taken to ensure that perpetrators will face consequences."

Zuma, a polygamist, was criticised for emphasising his Zulu tribal identity and singing militant songs during this year's election campaign. He made comments that outraged anti-Aids and gender campaigners.

Peacock added: "We're at a complicated moment in South African history with revived traditionalism and there's a danger of gender transformation being lost.

"We hear men saying, 'If Jacob Zuma can have many wives, I can have many girlfriends.' The hyper-masculine rhetoric of the Zuma campaign is going to set back our work in challenging the old model of masculinity."

Carrie Shelver, an activist with People Opposing Women Abuse, said: "Generally there's a deficit of understanding and commitment to women's rights by the leadership of this country. It's simply not on people's agenda."

A report published by the trade union Solidarity earlier this month said that one child is raped in South Africa every three minutes, with 88% of rapes going unreported. It found that levels of child abuse in South Africa are increasing rapidly.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

South Africa's been so bad like this that it's been on my list of countries to "never ever travel to" for at least 7 - 8 years, it's not surprising at all. The whole culture favours the taking of women sexually by force. I mean, we've seen endless articles on the flamethrowers to defend car doors and the anti-rape devices for vaginal insertion... Who exactly is surprised? South Africa in general seems like it's heading more and more toward the world depicted in the first Mad Max movie without much to stop it, and the questions of why the state has failed so miserably at enforcing even basic law and order will, I suppose, continue to be asked long after it's degenerated to the level of Zimbabwe.

[Big Orange]

Who's up for the upcoming World Cup?

Something has gone horribly wrong with law enforcement if terrifying freaks like this roam about in plain view.

[Sea Skimmer]

South Africa in general seems like it's heading more and more toward the world depicted in the first Mad Max movie without much to stop it, and the questions of why the state has failed so miserably at enforcing even basic law and order will, I suppose, continue to be asked long after it's degenerated to the level of Zimbabwe.

South Africa is a lot better today then it was in say 1999. I mean you basically had the whole professional court and law enforcement apparatus kicked out and replaced by a bunch of ANC pets, it’s going to take a long time to undo that kind of damage, but it is happening. If it falls to the level of Zimbabwe its going to be because they can't get past dependence on mining economically, and the mines are starting to run out of good ores.

[Eldalote]

I read the same article in a Dutch paper the other day, only it was a lot shorter and it also mentioned more then 10% of these men admitted to raping a girl under the age of 10... (sorry, no quote.)

Statistics like this literally make me sick... Especially with what happened to my girlfriend...

I have a friend who was born and raised in South-Africa, until she moved here 6 years ago... If 25% of men rape, and three quarters of that rape more then once... Think about the percentage of women that must have been raped...

[Big Orange]

A feral "macho" warrior society is obsessed with getting some tale and bashing heads in, it is incompatible to the running of an advanced industrialized society. South Africa is still advanced and wealthy by African standards, despite the abuses and corruption of the ANC, but is the brain drain still pretty bad?

Anyway here is an interesting blog article trying to look on the bright side of life in South Africa in relation to Zimbabwe:

‘South Africa’s going the way of Zimbabwe’


I’m consistently amazed — no, make that, concerned — at the amount of seemingly intelligent people who still hold this opinion. It’s easy to write off the usual suspects for comments like this, but when people in their 30s with professional careers in high-powered positions make a comment like this around dinner tables, it beggars belief. Now I’m never one to begrudge anyone their opinion, but I’d like to blow this myth out of the water.

Firstly, let’s look at presidential politics. Mugabe moved very quickly after freedom to make himself a president for life. At that stage (early 1980s), Zimbabwe was a prosperous country and the world, facing other significant issues, turned a blind eye. Mugabe also made these moves quickly, at a stage when the populace was still blindly following him and, perhaps more importantly, before democratic institutions and checks and balances had found their feet.

Zimbabwe’s Constitution at that stage was also poorly defined and malleable (it was negotiated at Lancaster House in London, as part of a peace agreement ending years of civil war), which Mugabe leveraged very well. Contrast this with South Africa. We have an immensely strong Constitution that not even Thabo Mbeki (with all his paranoia and power politics) has tried to amend through two terms, and that remained robust under all the challenges of Madiba’s presidency.

The Constitution holds independent judiciary and has been well respected by all and sundry within the ANC, the party largely responsible for it. So, 13 years after the fall of apartheid, we still have a strong and unaltered Constitution with a range of weapons against an overbearing president.

In the Loony Tunes version of Zuma’s potential presidency, these same individuals see Zuma being given free reign to change the Constitution, change the entire economic progression of the country and make himself a corrupt, benevolent ruler. How so? What will the half of Cosatu members — supposedly his bedrock of support — that don’t want him as president (Markinor study earlier this year) have to say about that? What will the plenty of power players left in the upper echelons of the ANC say about that? Will Parliament just rubber-stamp any Bill in front of it, regardless of its merit? Will the judiciary stand idly by? These individuals will confidently reply yes to such questions, but there is no logical basis for this assertion, only prejudice.

Secondly, let’s look at the economics. South Africa is an immensely more powerful economy than Zimbabwe ever was. Yes, Zimbabwe was once the “bread basket of Africa”, but that was a reference to its agricultural production, a primary good that was delivered internally and for immediate neighbours. South Africa has a developed-world, complex good economy, strong in service and manufactured goods that makes the country irretrievably connected to the international economy. Look at the pressure Mbeki is under from international leaders about the state of Zimbabwe currently, and that is on humanitarian grounds only. A South African president would find himself or herself under unbearable pressure should any of these “mistakes” be made on his or her watch. Our economy is unbelievably robust, and is infinitely more difficult to ruin as agricultural production, the cornerstone of Zimbabwe’s strength, was by Mugabe.

Thirdly, let’s look at property rights. This is a huge legacy issue in South Africa, and it is incredible how little trouble it has caused thus far. The land-restitution process, although slow, has resolved almost all of the urban land claims peacefully since 1994, with the final claims being resolved by 2008, representing a total of almost 80 000 claims. That is staggering.

Agricultural land is more difficult, and the government is short of its target of 30% redistribution by 2014. However, this process has been slow because of the government’s absolute adherence to the letter of the law, not because of any improprieties. The land-restitution process allows for a willing-buyer, willing-seller process in almost every case, except when the seller is being obstructive in selling price (where a genuine land claim has been made on his or her farm) and negotiations have failed for six months or more. In this case, the government can appoint an independent adjudicator to review the process and decide on a fair selling price for the farm, which is given to the farmer and the land expropriated. This has only happened once so far, and is a far cry of land grabs in Zimbabwe.

Land restitution is something we have to live with in South Africa. That land was taken from people under apartheid, and there has to be restitution for them. Farmers get the full price of their land, and that will not change. In my view, property rights are cemented in the Constitution, and property rights are rock solid in South Africa.

Finally, let’s look at the global situation. South Africa is a strategic player on the world stage, for its position as the economic and political powerhouse of Africa, its control of globally scarce minerals and its importance as an emerging economy for the global economy itself. There are too many players with vested interests in the country for even hints of a “Zimbabwe situation” to occur. With all that’s going on politically in South Africa at present, read the European press, how interested they are in the local occurrences. There’s too much at stake in South Africa for anything to be allowed to flounder here. Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, the same could not be said for that country at the time.

Let’s add to this rebuttal in comments, and build a solid counter-argument for the dinner-party blow-hards. It’s time this was put to bed. And it’s time these apologists put their backs into making our proud nation work, and stop wishing it to fail.

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