The war being waged by men against our girls and women continues.
Below is a tiny sample of events reported across South African media in the first few days of July. The vastmajority of such cases go unreported.
• Four suspects arrested in connection with multiple rapes of two young children in the Northern Cape.
• Search for Durban teen Amanda Phungula is ongoing. Her family is frantic; she’s been missing for more than a fortnight.
• A high school teacher from Mpumalanga is suspended for “appalling behaviour” after being filmed assaulting two women.
• Parents of young victims of alleged serial rapist Riedewaan George write to President Cyril Ramaphosa to object to the accused moving back to his home in Salt River, five doors away from one of the girls.
• The family of a teenager raped at gunpoint by two men in Limpopo seek answers from the police after the girl bumped into her alleged rapists in the street.
• In a ruling described as “unprecedented leniency, an Umlazi magistrate gave a man who raped a six-year-old child a suspended sentence, claiming the victim was not traumatised.
• A Gugulethu pastor convicted of raping a mentally disabled girl is sentenced to life imprisonment by the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court.
It goes on and on, and on.
Last month, writing in WAARHEID!, GOOD leader Patricia De Lille said the first line of defence against gender-based violence was at home and at school, raising boys who are respectful of girls and women.
In her column this month; Aunty Pat considers the role of policing, the courts and sentencing.
“We need a powerful toolbox of deterrents,’ she says. “Abusers and rapists must know that their chance of escaping justice for their crimes is virtually nil.”
Responsibility for closing possible escape routes started with people who know sex crimes are being committed having the courage to speak out. There must be nowhere to hide. Then, an effective criminal justice system must kick in.
Some South Africans believe introducing legislation to permit the castration of sexual offenders will help. Several US states, for example, will reduce the jail terms of sex offenders provided the offenders submit to injections to lower their sex drive for as long as the court believes necessary. They call it chemical castration.
Opponents of this type of sentence say it is barbaric and unhelpful. Read Aunty Pat’s column below and send us your thoughts. Email info@forgood.org.za
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