Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - August 13, 2006
Bienne Huisman
According to current law a man cannot be raped, only indecently assaulted - effectively a less serious crime than the rape of a woman.
According to Friends Against Abuse, an organisation supporting male victims of sexual assault in prisons, there is a 99% chance of a South African inmate being sexually violated - and possibly gang-raped and infected with HIV. A member of the group, Eddie Johnson, who has done extensive work in SA prisons, estimated that three out of five inmates were raped.
"It's really a shocking problem. Rape is part of the gangster culture in prisons. It is time that something is done about it," Johnson said.
Sara Jones, who last year co-founded a support network for abused men called For The Boys, said: "We have had word from guys - aged between 15 and 35 - who have been brutally raped by their elders or groups of men. They tell how, like women, they have a very difficult time processing the act of violence against them.
"The fact that men and boys are raped as frequently as women is still a shocker," said Jones, who wrote a rehabilitation guide for men which was endorsed by the Department of Education and the police.
For The Boys hopes to foster talk about abuse of males in a monitored Internet chatroom.
"The idea is to encourage boys and men to speak, so they realise they are not alone in their ordeal," she said.
The Deputy Minister of Justice, Johnny de Lange, said male victims would probably be hesitant at first to bring a charge of rape against a man or a woman. "But in time this will break the wall of silence."
One problem facing male sex victims was being ridiculed when they bring charges. A 30-year-old electrician from Roodepoort, Gauteng, claimed he was raped after three women forced him to have sex with them - but the police did not take him seriously when he tried to bring charges.
"Some guys have told me they had similar experiences but didn't go to the police station because they wouldn't get support," he said.
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