MBOMBELA – Up to 40 per cent of men have hit their partner, three women in South Africa are killed by their intimate partner every day and an estimated 25 per cent of South African women will be raped in their lifetime.
These statistics revealed by the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), however, are just the tip of the iceberg.
It furthermore revealed that only four per cent of victims report their abuse to police and, according to Prof Rachel Jewkes, director of the Gender & Health Research Unit of the South African MRC, one of the main reasons rape victims are reluctant to step forward is that they don’t think anything will come of it.
“Also, they frequently fear their rapist, especially if he is a partner, and may not want him to be prosecuted and then have to face victimisation, as the cause of his incarceration, from family and friends,” she explained.
According to Jewkes many victims also perceive rape as a shameful and private act and rather seek comfort and not the further trauma of having to talk to strangers.
Of the few cases that are reported, only a fraction ever lead to convictions, Jewkes added.
“For every 100 reported rape cases, only six get convicted.” According to her in 50 per cent of the cases, no arrests are made. “The reality is that the cases are poorly investigated by the police, improperly prepared and generally not given high priority.”
What GRIP says
The Greater Rape Intervention Programme’s (GRIP) chief excecutive oficer (CEO), Ms Lungile Kubeka, agreed with Jewkes when it came to the reporting and conviction challenges and said police stations remained a huge stumbling block.
She explained that police-unit appraisals took into account the number of open cases a station had on its books – the more cases, the less favourable the assessment. “As a result, survivors are often discouraged by police officials – the very people who are supposed to protect them – from even opening cases.”
Kubeka said a huge contributing factor to this staggering statistics was South Africa’s dominant patriarchal culture and high incidence of unemployment.
“Entrenched gender stereotyping, the desire for dominance and obsolete notions of machismo in South Africa perpetuate violence against society’s most vulnerable citizens – women and children – and represent a displacement of aggression in which men feel able to reassert their power,” she said. “Many women also feel they simply have nowhere to go.”
What is being done?
“It’s no longer simply enough for the nation to scratch its collective head for reasons to explain what lies behind the abominable levels of male violence so prevalent in our burdened society,” says George Grieve, managing director of Vital Health Foods. “The time has come to put words into actions and, by creating an navigable channel for those suffering abuse to access the services of the organisations most relevant to their needs.
Not only does the Vital Foundation provide a platform for organisations dedicated to the care of victims of abuse to promote their work, and for victims themselves to easily access their services, but it also offers funding to these organisations. R1 from every Vital Health Foods supplement sold through leading retail outlets around the country is donated to the Vital Foundation. To date the Foundation has raised over R6,9 million in this way.
GRIP, which provides humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation, support and counselling to survivors of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence, as well as to those infected or affected by HIV/Aids, recently received R40 000 from the Vital Foundation to tackle this enormous problem.
“The R40 000 donation we received allowes us to undertake critical monitoring and evaluation staff training, an action that we are confident will further GRIP’s advocacy efforts as well as our fund-raising targets,” Kubeka said.
GRIP admits approximately 160 domestic violence cases monthly of which five are male cases. According to them this numbers increase during pick season. In December last year they handled 201 cases of domestic violence.
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