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SOUTH AFRICA - MEN AGAINST RAPE
& SEXUAL VIOLENCE
WORKSHOP PROVIDES INSIGHTS ON ROOT
ISSUES - POWER +
Dumisani Rebombo was racked by guilt after raping a woman.
"How many of you here have
ever raped a woman?"
After
a short silence two men gingerly raise their hands.
In
towns and cities across South Africa, small groups of men, some of them
confessed rapists, are meeting to talk about sexual violence, as part of a
small but significant challenge to their country's notorious record on rape.
This
workshop is gathered at a sports centre in the deprived Johannesburg township
of Alexandra.
"Most
men are silent about this," says Dumisani Rebombo, who is leading the
workshop organised by the One Man Can Campaign.
But
it is "vitally important" for men to play their part in tackling the
rape crisis, he says.
Just
as the participation of white people in the black struggle against apartheid in
South Africa had added strength to that movement, men "must stand up and
work with women" to combat rape, he told the BBC World Service.
"Do you think women are raped in our country because of
wearing short skirts?" Mr Rebombo asks the group.
They
reply with a mix of Yes and No - the Yes group a little louder than the other.
"Rape
is about sleeping with a woman without her consent and I have done it,"
admits one of the men, 33-year-old Phikeleli.
"By
coming here I have had the opportunity to sit down with other men and to
discuss the issue of 'No is No' - and to understand exactly what rape is,"
he adds.
Another
man told the BBC about a gang rape of a woman in his neighbourhood.
"The
community said that she deserved it... It happens so often that it is not taken
seriously by the community - it's a norm to them."
Though
South Africa's murder rate has now fallen to its lowest level in recent years,
rape is still on the increase, according to the latest official crime figures.
More
than 56,000 women reported having been raped during the 12-month period to
March 2011, police say. Many more cases are believed to go unreported.
Justice and society
Earlier
this month President Jacob Zuma infuriated activists and many of the country's
top lawyers by appointing an ordained pastor with controversial views on rape
and homosexuality as the country's chief justice.
Judge
Mogoeng Mogoeng, now South Africa's most senior judge, has denied he was
insensitive to rape.
In
2004, however, he reduced the sentence of a man convicted of raping a
seven-year-old girl from life imprisonment to 18 months, the minimum.
And
a year later, he reduced the jail sentence of another man who attempted rape
from five to two years.
In
an interview with the BBC World Service, South Africa's Minister for Basic
Education, Angie Motshekga, denied the authorities were doing too little to
tackle the crime.
The
rate of rape cases is "unacceptably high," says Mrs Motshekga.
But
she says "the decadence in our society" is to blame, not the
government.
"Kids
come to school with social stereotypes, which are reinforced at home, in
society, in the church - everywhere they go. It is a social problem."
"How
many people we arrest isn't the solution, it lies with socialisation and our
country's value system."
Saying sorry
Dumisani
Rebombo is himself a confessed rapist who went one step further by seeking out
his victim years later, in order to ask for her forgiveness.
He
was 15 years old when he and another boy raped a girl in their village -
"in order to teach her a lesson".
He
said it took him 20 years to realise what he had done was wrong.
"It
dawned on me that I had to find this woman," he said.
When
they met, he apologised and she broke down in tears.
Three years later,
he began organising workshops to talk about how to stop other men raping women.
"I
would say all men have in one way or another raped," says Ronnie, a former
convict and another member at the workshop.
Many
of his fellow inmates were in jail for rape attacks.
"It's
not easy for them to accept what they did was wrong," he says.
"It's
all about power - men believe they have the right to do as they please."