Too many rape victims in South Africa

Nomfundo Nondzube

A woman is raped every 17 seconds in South Africa. This is according to South African Rape Statistics. So far, the highest increase in attacks has been against children under the age of seven, largely due to the myth that has circulated the world that sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure a man of HIV or AIDS. The shocking truth is that it is estimated that a woman in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped than learning how to read.

Nosipho Dlulane, a 24 year-old woman who studies at a well-established University in the Eastern Cape was raped at the tender age 8 years. Her story is similar to many stories that have been told in South Africa where young girls are taken advantage of by older men and lured into bed where they are raped. In 2006, she remembers being sent by her grandfather to his son-in-law’s house because her mom (now deceased) was sick. “He led me to his bedroom where he told me to lie in bed and put cotton in my mouth and showed me a knife. I was so terrified to see his penis and he asked me to touch it,” she said. Clinical psychologist Nandipha Lingani says that rape in its entirety is a sexual violent act that can be linked to the need of a man to be dominant and needing to be in control. “I would say that some sexual predators have their preference where they get their fulfillment from young children because they have the urgency to fulfill that sexual drive and also have a psychological motive to be in control,” Lingani said.

There have been at least three incidents of rapes and gang rapes involving teenagers in South Africa. People were appalled when a 17 year-old mentally disabled girl in Soweto was gang raped last month by a group of seven boys aged between 13 and 20. This ordeal was taped with a cell phone for 10 minutes and 33 seconds where they assaulted her, promising her R2. The video ended up on social networking sites.

The second incident happened a week two weeks ago where an 8 year-old girl from KwaZulu-Natal was allegedly raped by a 15 year-old boy, while walking home from school in Mvutshini Village in Gingindlovu. The young boy dragged the child into a field, raped her, took out one of her eyes and tried to strangle her. The girl crawled to her home after she was attacked and raped.

The third incident is a recent rape case in a school in Grahamstown where a teacher allegedly raped two school children who are siblings. He was suspended, but the parent is scared for her children’s safety. The mother noticed that something was wrong with her daughter while bathing her on March 29^th and took her to hospital where it was discovered that she has been sexually assaulted more than once. Following this incident, the mother realized that something was wrong with her son on April 25^th when he was unable to sit properly and complained of soreness. When she took him to hospital, she was horrified to find out that he had also been raped. The son said he had been assaulted by a man at school, the same story that the daughter had told her. This man was a teacher at their school, according to the Herald newspaper.

Lingani explained that the consequences of rape are that it changes the child’s way of interaction with the world as they are scared for life. “They may lose trust to any man they come in contact with or in most cases it is buried deep in their sub-conscience because of its traumatic effect,” she said. She continued to say that promiscuity sometimes is a behavioural outcome that’s resulted from sexual abuse but children react differently. She also added that depression, guilt and negative self-perception are some long term effects of sexual abuse.

‘He was like a father to me,” Dlulane said when talking about the day she was raped. “I told my mother a year later when I saw her again because she was sick,” she said. In her case, the rape did not affect my health necessarily; instead it affected her sleeping patterns. “I had to depend on sleeping pills for many years because I would have nightmares,” she said sadly. After this had happened to her, Dlulane was unable to receive support from her family because she kept quiet about what happened to her in order to keep her family at peace. Lingani says that it is very important that after the experience they must tell someone they trust who will help them get medical attention. “They must get an HIV test, report the person if he is known to them and also seek counseling to help them come to terms with the effects of post-traumatic stress, such as anxiety or depression,” she said.

The psychologist explained that upon referral, it is important to establish an environment whereby the patient will feel safe and secure enough to talk about their feeling. “In cases of rape, the victim tends to blame themselves for what happened, therefore it is necessary to comfort effectively,” she added. For Dlulane, it was hard for her to trust people around her as she looked at all males in the same way as she did the man who raped her. She always thought they would harm her and all she wanted to do was to protect herself even if at times she didn’t have to. “Children usually don’t know who to turn to, so it becomes a societal issue whereby it should be encouraged for children to practice the simple task of knowing what inappropriate touching is and to also help them form a habit with telling someone they can trust if anybody makes their bodies feel uncomfortable,” Lingani said.

Sometimes children are not able to express themselves, especially after they have been raped. The psychologist expressed that parents should always support their children after they have been raped. She said that this is ideal to remove feelings of rejection. She then said following the support comes establishing any physical damage with a pediatrician and ongoing counseling is essential throughout the victim’s life. “The reason for this is that feelings evolve through times and the traumatic event may resurface in other forms of behavior,’ she said.

Dlulane started sharing her story with people around her whom she trusted such as close friends and other young girls who experienced the same thing. Doctors told her that she may never be able to conceive, but now she has a beautiful 4 year-old girl whom she loves daily. “I’m still scared that what happened to me might also happen to my baby girl,” she said. The shock of Dlulane’s death is that she didn’t receive justice as the man who raped her was never arrested due to lack of evidence. This angers her, “I don’t like the fact that our government doesn’t priorities to support the victims of rape and their families. There are many South Africans who will die because of emotional scars that never healed and the culprits get away with it because of this,” she said in anger.