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 Yearly statistics still paint a scary picture of the extent to which these horrific crimes are afflicting communities. But of even greater concern is the way our criminal justice system has dealt with rape 

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SOUTH Africa is often labelled, largely with a measure of credibility, as the murder and rape capital of the world.

Many would dismiss such a portrayal as nothing more than sensationalistic and scare-mongering.

But there is no denying that as a nation we still have to overcome huge odds to bring the two scourges at least under control.

Yearly statistics still paint a scary picture of the extent to which these horrific crimes are afflicting communities.

But of even greater concern is the way our criminal justice system has dealt with rape.

Elsewhere in the paper today we are running a story of the rejection by the victim of rape and the Public Protector of a pathetic excuse for an apology that the government was ordered to extend to the rape victim.

The story is a sequel to a series of reports on how a victim of rape has been failed by the system, not once, not twice but more than 48 times over the past nine years.

Forty-eight is the number of times the hearing into the case against two men who repeatedly raped the woman was postponed.

The poor woman has had to endure bumbling by those tasked with administering justice that eventually saw the men accused of raping her eventually sentenced to 15 years imprisonment each.

If proof was ever needed that the system rapes victims over and over again, this is it.

Many rape victims have complained that the experience of having to contend with officialdom that would not care less about their ordeals was tantamount to being raped all over again.

Despite the high incidence of rape, it is believed many more rapes go unreported because victims fear the kind of treatment they receive at the hands of those supposed to help them - starting with the unsympathetic policeman taking the statement.

The rape victim in this instance would be justified in feeling she has been raped at least 48 more times since her gang-rape in 2002.

She was violated once again when the Department of Justice apologised to her 15 months after the Public Protector ordered that it do so.

To rub salt into the wound, the department also announced that it would not pay therecommended compensation because "no crime has been committed against her".

Is this an indication of how seriously the department takes rape?

The department said it was prepared to pay only for the travelling costs of the victim and witnesses in the case.

Now, that is scaling the heights of insensitivity.

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Thu May 23 18:33:57 SAST 2013 ::

Mar 16, 2012

BaleliM

The biggest problem we have in SA is that we have so many people that are heartless and we talk about ubuntu but rarely, if ever, practice it.
We are so embroiled with despising each other such that this rot has spread to almost all areas of our lives, to an extent that we are not moved by anything.
What matters is me and maybe, just maybe my family.
If the foundation is not right meaning our need to know our self worth, how then will we manage to to show love and ubuntu to the community at large?
I shudder as i read this and i reconfirm that humans are definitely worse than animals.
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