"Whole of Society" approach will stop rape

This week South Africans united in their outrage over the brutal gang rape and murder of 17 year old Anene Booysen. May her family and friends, who buried her yesterday, receive some comfort from the knowledge that the nation stands beside them and shares their grief.

Anene's senseless murder has once again highlighted the grim reality faced by our women and children every day.  

Most of us grew up thinking of rape as a violent and coercive crime perpetrated by strangers.Today we know that most rape and violence against women is committed by men they know well, often their intimate partners.  In Anene's case, one of the alleged perpetrators was a family friend.

Police statistics show that around 144 women report rape each day. However, the Medical Research Council (MRC) estimates that only one in 25 women reports a rape.  

The official statistics represent the tip of an iceberg of abuse and violence that has the potential to shipwreck our society. Intimate femicide (the murder of women by their intimate partners) is also the leading cause of female homicide in SA. The MRC found that in 2009 a woman was killed by her partner every eight hours.

Stories about men raping babies and grandmothers are regular news items. Just yesterday, there were reports of a 20 year old Limpopo man who is suspected of raping his 3 year old niece; and another report about a young man who raped a 69 year old woman in an Eastern Cape village and then fell asleep in her bed.  Although I have no further knowledge of either case, I am prepared to bet that both men were under the influence of a mind-altering substance, most probably alcohol, when they committed these unspeakable crimes.

About 20 years ago, I recall the nation's horror at a news report of a drunk man raping a baby in a Hillbrow flat.

The story dominated the news for days as South Africans engaged in agonised soul-searching.  Today, these news items barely make the front page.  

We must therefore welcome the outcry over Anene's murder as well as the swift action taken by the police to arrest the perpetrators.

Commentators have compared this outrage to the mass demonstrations that occurred in December, in India over the gang rape and murder of a 23 year old medical student on a New Delhi bus. 

In response to her death, the Indian Government appointed the Verma commission, headed by a former Chief Justice, to investigate changes to existing laws to improve security for women in India. The commission recently submitted a 630-page report that makes a number of recommendations ranging from the minimum sentencing of rapists to the support and care that must be provided to victims. 

But unlike India, South Africa already has progressive legislation, such as the Sexual Offences Act, which is intended to address the scourge of violence against women and children.

We also have a national department focused on uplifting women, children and people with disabilities and a detailed 365-day "national plan" (launched in 2007) to counter gender violence. 

Last year, a National Council Against Gender-Based Violence headed by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe was established to serve as a "high-level multi-sectoral national response" to the scourge of gender based violence. 

We also have the Domestic Violence Task Team and the inter-sectoral Steering Committee on Sexual Offences chaired by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development; the interdepartmental Management Team on Sexual Offences chaired by the National Prosecuting Authority and the Victim Empowerment Management Forum, chaired by the National Department of Social Development.

While on paper our government has a far more progressive and comprehensive strategy to combat gender-based violence than the Indian government, it is evident that these measures, on their own, cannot address the magnitude of the crisis. 

Many South Africans blame this on our dysfunctional criminal justice system. MSC research revealed that just 6% of reported rape cases in Gauteng are successfully prosecuted. This means that 94% of reported perpetrators (and thousands more unreported) got away with rape.  Hence the grim adage: Men rape because they can!

And when they get away with it, it increasingly becomes part of daily life: a vicious cycle fuelled by alcohol and drugs, absent fathers, multiple sexual partners, a patriarchal culture that views women as "possessions",  the acceptance of inter-generational sex, and dysfunctional families.  

Government has a crucial role to play, but cannot break this cycle alone.

We need a "whole of society" approach where government, communities, families and individuals understand and act upon their specific responsibilities to create a safer society for women and children.

National government needs to make the following urgent interventions: 

• Adequately resource the newly re-established specialised Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit within the SAPS so that they can detect and investigate incidents of sexual offences committed against women and children.  Perpetrators must know they will be caught, prosecuted and punished.
• Re-establish sexual offences courts across the country that are complemented by fully operational Thuthuzela Care Centres that offer one-stop, integrated support to rape victims;
• Publish detailed statistics on sexual offences (gleaned from the SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority) to inform a comprehensive strategy to detect and prevent these  crimes;
• Create a single consolidated sexual offenders' register under the auspices of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development;
• Re-establish specialised drug and gang units to combat illicit drug-use that so often drives sexual violence; 
• Crack down on distributors and retailers supplying alcohol to illegal shebeens in residential communities;
• Extend the school day to keep children engaged in useful extra-mural and home-work programmes between 14h00 and 18h00 so that they are off the streets and work towards better education outcomes required to get a job; 
• Ensure merit based teacher appointments and accountability in the education system; 
• Reduce the unemployment rate amongst young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years by introducing a Youth Wage Subsidy, vocational and apprenticeship programmes and opportunity vouchers for school leavers to help subsidise further education or guarantee a loan or provide capital to start a small business. 

However, communities and citizens need to recognise that they also have responsibilities.  Parents in particular. And fathers specifically.  No government can substitute for the crucial role that two loving, committed parents play in a child's development, physical, mental and moral.

The research literature is replete with evidence of the detrimental effect on young boys who grow up in the absence of a responsible father figure. 

It is therefore a matter of grave concern that, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), the proportion of fathers who are alive but absent in their children's lives has increased from 42% to 48% between 1996 and 2009.  For African children under 15, the figure in 2009 was a horrific 70%.

The 2008 National Youth Lifestyle Study by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention also found that many young people are growing up witnessing violence and criminal activities in their communities.

For example, 51% of young people said they had witnessed people in their communities intentionally harm one another. In 83% of cases where young people had been the victim of assault, the perpetrator was known to them and in 40% of cases it was a community member.

Over half of all respondents also described their neighbourhood as having a "lot of fights" (54%) and a lot of crime (50%) and 34% of 12-22 year-olds were personally acquainted with somebody in their community who had committed a crime.  33% also knew somebody in their community who made a living out of criminal activities and one in six youths also had family members who had been in jail. 

Yet, 74% of young people questioned in the study believed adults in their communities were setting a good example!  They have experience of nothing else.

Growing up in these circumstances, many young people would assume there is nothing wrong with violence and crime. 

An increasing number of young patients are also being admitted to rehabilitation centres for alcohol and other drug related problems.

If we hope to turn the tide against gender based violence we need to stop these trends, starting with two simple aphorisms:  

1. No means No! In any and all circumstances. We must support women who speak out and publicly stigmatise men who do not understand the meaning of this word.  The millions of men who abhor rape must take the lead in doing so. 

2. "Don't make a baby if you can't be a father". Men who shun the responsibilities of fatherhood must feel society's wrath. We must stigmatise inter-generational sex. And we must do what it takes to break the vicious cycle of teenage pregnancies that trap so many girls and their children in permanent dependency and degrading poverty, often accompanied by sexual violence.

Citizens can help by becoming actively involved in neighbourhood watch systems and report criminal behaviour to the police. Too often, perpetrators are protected by their victims and communities. The police must adequately protect people who are prepared to give evidence in court. Volunteers can also donate time and energy to one of the NGOs that deal with the crisis of rape.  

It is pointless to blame rape on "poverty". It is an insult to the millions of poverty-stricken people and communities who abhor crime. The solution lies with all of us. It is time for government, communities, families and individuals to commit themselves to taking joint responsibility for tackling the root causes of rape and gender based violence. We must do this in memory of Anene Booysen and the millions of victims of sexual violence in our country.

This article by Helen Zille first appeared in SA Today, the online newsletter of the leader of the Democratic Alliance.

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