JOHANNESBURG, Dec 11 (AFP) - Two South African men appeared in a magistrate's court here Tuesday for the brutal rape of a five-month-old baby, while some 5,000 people signed a petition demanding that they be denied bail.
Vusimuzi Dlamini, 21, and Martin Dlamini, 24, accused of raping a five-month-old baby in the city last week, appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court.
The men, believed to be unrelated, are facing charges of raping and abusing the baby at an old cinema complex in the city centre when the child's mother left her alone for a while.
When the mother returned, she found the baby crying and bleeding.
Police arrested the men a day later.
At their appearance on Tuesday, both men claimed they were victimised by prison wardens, who allegedly slapped them and introduced them to other prisoners as "baby rapists".
They also demanded their HIV status from blood results, which were apparently taken for DNA testing.
Some 5,000 South Africans have signed a petition demanding that the men be refused bail, a campaigner against child abuse said Tuesday.
"We have about 5,100 signatures on a petition demanding that the men not be given bail and about 200 demonstrators at court today (Tuesday)," Barbara Creecy, a campaigner against child abuse and African National Congress member of the Gauteng parliament, told AFP.
The case was postponed to December 18 to secure a legal representative for the defendants.
The rape of at least 20 children, including three infants, over the past month has jolted South Africa into protesting widespread child abuse.
A campaign of 16 days of action against child abuse, launched November 25, has seen a steady stream of public protests led by trade unions and community and political leaders.
Former president Nelson Mandela has joined in condemning child abuse.
He also called for a campaign to be launched to dispel the myth that sex with a virgin, child or baby can cure HIV/AIDS, a misconception seen to be contributing to the spate of child rapes.
Police estimate that some 21,000 children -- an average of 58 a day -- were the victims of rape or sexual abuse between January 2000 and June 2001.
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