WUNRN
The Leader - Johannesburg, South
Africa
VIOLENCE AGAINST GIRLS &
WOMEN - SOUTH AFRICA
RAPE - DISGRACEFUL WEAPON AGAINST
WOMEN
November 12, 2010
South Africa - The allegations of the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl on the
Jules High School campus in Jeppestown rocked the nation.
It wasn't just that she was drugged; that the heinous, brutal attack was
recorded on a cellphone; that the recording of the vicious act was circulated
and -- if we believe some early reports -- that some educators laughed when
they saw the video that was so devastating.
It wasn't the chilling comments from the school pupils, some of whom told our
reporters that watching the incident was "like watching soccer" and
that the victim looked like she "was enjoying herself" that makes it
so shocking.
It wasn't even the reports of police not initially arresting the boys suspected
of being involved because they needed to take their exams; nor was it their
later release, reportedly because of a lack of evidence, that makes the
incident entirely deplorable. And it wasn't the fact that the latest reports
seem to be an attempt to discredit the victim by saying she was drunk, not
drugged. No.
The saddest part of the entire case is the fact that our outrage probably won't
last another week. We've known about this problem in our schools for years.
Baby rape is rampant, "corrective rape" of lesbians is accepted
practice in some areas, and gang rape all too prevalent.
There is a war against women and children in our
country and the weapon is rape.
The truth is we leave it to civil society to deal with. We wait for Sonke
Gender Justice to condemn leaders such as Julius Malema, who was only backing
President Jacob Zuma's account of his rape accuser when he made his "she
enjoyed herself" comment.
Then we shake our collective heads in disbelief when those comments come out of
the mouths of babes.
We hope women like Lisa Vetten, the director of Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy
Centre, will continue to shout on our behalf, that Gender Links will keep
holding 16 Days of Activism each year in its too often unheard effort to tell
the world about violence against women. We, the media, tell the story of the
victim and unravel the horrific details.
And the next hour, day, week, we, too, move on. Until the next woman or child
or baby is attacked.
We can't leave this up to civil society any longer. We need to shift our
national mentality. We need awareness in every crevice of our nation. We need
to have the SABC broadcast public service announcements, with leaders like
Malema telling the nation that real men don't rape women -- and don't even
utter comments that undermine women's rights in this way.
We need every type of media to tell the stories of our daughters, our nieces,
our grandmothers, our mothers, our wives, our girlfriends, our sisters and our
aunts, so that every man, woman and child clearly understands that rape affects
us all.
Will this be the one case, because of the shock factor, that won't allow us to
avert our eyes, that will force us to admit how bad it really is? We doubt it.
And that might be the saddest part of it all.