eMBALENHLE – Ms Tracy Seimela, an activist, is adamant that police complacency about rape is a key contributor to the high rate of rape cases in the area.
She said women will continue to suffer at the hands of cruel men as long as the police do not intensify their visibility.
Ms Seimela said most women have even given up reporting rape cases because they are not taken seriously.
“Their cases are dismissed before any investigation takes place or their complaints are treated as minor domestic issues.
“This causes women to never even bother to report crimes against them because the police don’t have enough officials to apprehend perpetrators.”
She believes that there are not enough preventative measures to help curb violence against women.
She said most cases of violence happen within domestic settings, and most women and girls are raped by close relatives or lovers. Insensitive people dismiss those cases and often blame the victims.
Ms Seimela said police should often conduct awareness campaigns about sexual violence and educate locals about its consequences.
“Women will continue to be raped, killed and victimised because there is little being done to teach our community just how wrong this is and what consequences they face if they are caught engaging in acts of violence against women.
“Another thing is the high number of gang-related crimes and violence that happen locally. Police are being complacent about it and they do not fully investigate these incidents.
“Most of these gang members will violate women as they see fit because they will not be arrested and brought to book. We need to have a mass educational program to teach learners and adults about how to not be participants in these crimes, what penalties they face when being perpetrators of these crimes and how and where to report these crimes.”
She said another problem is the huge stigma that corrective rape works and that people of the LGBTQI spectrum can be made purely heterosexual through rape.
She claims that young men in the area go to local initiation schools and come back indoctrinated with silly and malevolent notions.
“They are taught that their girlfriends should be submissive and should always give them sex by any means necessary.
“It is high time that everybody gets involved.
“Enough is enough. We need to challenge people who feel entitled to others’ bodies and violating them because they feel that they can get away with anything they want,” Ms Seimala concluded.
