One out of four South African men admit rape

by Ostia | June 18, 2009 at 12:32 am
648 views | 107 Recommendations | 42 comments

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Protests in South Africa

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According to a study into rape and HIV by South Africa's Medical Research Council (MRC) a quater of men in South Africa have raped at least one man or woman.

The study includes a representative sample of 1738 men in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. To ensure anonymity the men were asked to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device.

The results are more than shocking:

  • about one out of four men said they had raped a woman/girl/man/boy before
  • 28% said they had raped a woman or girl
  • 3% said they had raped a man or boy
  • 73% stated that they carried out their first assault before the age of 20
  • Nearly 50% said they had raped more than once
  • 10% said they had been forced to have sex with another man

The results regarding the interrelationship between HIV and rape are no better:

  • Men who are physically violent were shown to be twice as likely to be HIV-positive
  • Any woman raped by a man over the age of 25 has a 25% chance of her attacker being HIV-positive

Even though the results of the study are newly published, the problem has been known for a long time. Nonetheless, the government has done little to improve the situation.

Quote

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

Additionally, Zuma is a polygamist and has been using a hyper-masculine rhetoric during his campaign. His behaviour is feared to lead to a strengthening of traditional models of masculinity which values women's rights only little.

Also child rape is major issue.

Quote

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.
recommend This comment thread is now closed
3
Paschen

That is a rather high number of rapes and I would hope the SA government would step in here, however its own President was recently acquitted of Rape charges under some questionable court procedures. 

2
Jordan Yerman

A compelling (and worrying) story. It's worth pointing out, though, that the headline isn't entirely accurate: KwaZulu Natal and Eastern Cape are only two out of nine provinces, and the populous Gauteng Province (home to Jo'burg and Pretoria) is not included in this study.

Oh, and if they're gonna bust out such a shocking claim, it's best to use a larger sample pool.

2
Amy Judd

This is truly awful, what a terrible statistic.

1
Ostia

I'm sorry for the editing issues, I always get them when I'm using IE. I'll be on a PC with Firefox soon and fix it.

1
Catherine Skehan

Does anyone know how i can get a copy of this report?

1
sara star

 This has got to change.

Can you add a tag to this post... womens rights?

1
Ostia

done :)

1
tikun

Any number is too high.

1
Iffy

Sadly, the SA government has long believed rape is some sort of justice for the Apartheid era. It is a very misguided and twisted thought process, but that is how they think. Zuma is very much part of that mindset as we all know.

1
Roy C

Statistics from hell.

1
Tanmoy Deb

Too dangerous and shocking..

1
cyn.khoo

This statistic is beyond belief. I can't even imagine. I don't think a society like that could be called anything other than dysfunctional.  That's like...if you have 3-4 male friends, one of them potentially has forced someone down somewhere and forced themself sexually on that person against their will. WTF. This is infuriating and terrifying.

1
Ostia

I agree and don't at the same time.

Hardly any study is conducted nationwide but usually exemplary provinces/areas are chosen to do so. The chosen areas usually have a similar economic, social and demographic make-up as the country on a whole allowing for the study to be at least academically representative. This is not to say that the current study is sufficient and complementary research shouldn't be conducted.

0
sivakaran

You probably converted that 1 in 4 as 25%, which you are right.

However, if you look at the percentages carefully. 28% said they raped a woman or girl, which is a subset of  those had raped a woman/girl/man/boy.

Therefore, atleast 28% must've raped a woman/girl/man/boy before

0
sivakaran

I agree

0
jazzyzazzy

Wakey wakey folks. Woman are raped and abused all over this world every day. Even heard of Husbands raping their wives. The statistics do not surprise me at all.These are the ones who came clean,what about the men who dont, how many of them are still hankering about our streets.

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Paschen
First Flagged at 1:37 AM, Jun 18, 2009 by Paschen
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