Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - September 25, 2005
Strategies implemented by the government over the past 10 years - which include professionalising the South African Police Service - have clearly had an effect. The decrease in crime also sends a message to ordinary people that this is a nation that rejects criminality.
However, while we applaud the police's successes, we must express dismay at the increase in the number of rape cases as reflected in crime statistics.
Rape has increased by 4% - from 52733 to 55114 cases.
These are only reported cases. That figure would be far worse, but there are many other rape victims who are afraid to report their ordeals to the police.
Also worrying is how cases of indecent assault have increased from 9302 to 10123.
We South Africans must hang our heads in shame at the realisation that 10 years into the life of this nation, so many of the nation's men are treating their female fellow citizens as sexual prey.
There is something terribly wrong in our society's mindset when rape becomes an everyday occurrence.
The violation of women and children has become a priority of some male lunatics in a society where the protection of women and children is supposed to be one of the important pillars of our democracy.
We must ask ourselves some difficult questions.
We need to ask how much blame each citizen should take for failing the nation's women and children.
We must ask whether we are putting in enough effort to eliminate this scourge.
The fight against rape and the abuse of women and children is not the responsibility of the police and the criminal justice system alone.
There is an urgent need for communities and law- enforcement agencies to strike a social accord that can curb the spread of rape within our communities.
Rape robs women of their dignity, and there is also evidence that a significant number of its victims have contracted HIV/Aids and other diseases. Some of the victims take years to recover from their anguish and anxiety despite rehabilitation and counselling.
There is something that each of us can do to fight rape. We all need to act to change the mind-set of this country's men. Many of us are friends, parents, siblings, colleagues and neighbours to rapists and potential rapists.
We should be asking ourselves what we are doing to rid them of this disease and what we are doing to instil respect for human dignity among our menfolk.
That is the only way we will eradicate rape.
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