2001-11-15 17:27

Cape Town – South African legislators on Wednesday blamed the apparent increase in child rape and sex abuse on a belief that having sex with a virgin cures Aids.

In a debate triggered by the gang rape this month of a nine-month-old baby girl (allegedly raped by six men including her grandfather), Deputy President Jacob Zuma announced plans for a moral summit early next year aimed at reviving national morality.

“Apartheid sowed the seeds for the breakdown of the institution of the family. The molestation of children and infants is a symptom of this degeneration,” he said.

South Africa has long had one of the highest rape statistics in the world, but Aids activists blame the apparent surge in the rape of pre-adolescent girls on a myth perpetuated by some traditional healers that sex with a virgin can cure the disease.

South Africa has more people living with HIV and Aids than any other country in the world.

The state-funded Medical Research Council has estimated that between five and seven million people will die of Aids-related illnesses by 2010 with the virus accounting for two thirds of all deaths.

While Zuma made no mention of the virgin-cure myth, African National Congress (ANC) legislator Lulama Xingwana cited it as a key factor in the scourge.

“We want to expose the lie or the myth that sleeping with a virgin or a little child will cure you of HIV/Aids,” she said during a sometimes emotional debate.

“We also want to ask our traditional healers to go out and educate the public that there is no cure for HIV/Aids and that abusing women and raping children is not going to cure anybody,” she said.

Millions rely on traditional healers

Millions of South Africans live in rural areas far from modern medical care and rely on traditional healers or sangomas to treat their mental and physical ailments.

The government recently said it would prosecute traditional healers found to be perpetuating the virgin-cure myth.

Opposition Democratic Alliance speakers said the incidence of reported rape had risen by more than 20% since 1994 to 51 200 in 2000.

Citing official statistics, they said 21 438 cases of rape or attempted rape of children were reported in 2000, but only 1 797 cases resulted in convictions.

“The true measure of the moral values of a society is how it treats its children. We fail miserably,” Democratic Alliance legislator Paul Swart said.

While some opposition speakers called for a return to capital punishment, which was outlawed when the ANC ousted South Africa’s white-minority government in 1994, Zuma said the answer lay in a programme to revive social values.

“As part of the national moral regeneration movement that we are spearheading, I will be hosting a summit early in the new year.

“This great imbizo (meeting) will enable us to … identify the critical factors that are affecting the moral health of this nation,” he said.

 

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Child-rape-linked-to-Aids-myth-20011115