The current witch-hunt against “racist” Judge Mabel Jansen – presumably conducted to protect EFF leader Julius Malema from being sent to prison for tax fraud – has highlighted the rape culture of South African blacks.
The department of basic education declared last year that the rape culture in black schools were “a problem”. That includes primary (elementary) schools which indicates just how pervasive the rape culture is.
The rape of two seven-year olds by six boys at a school in Vosloorus apparently took place last year during school hours at Rebonthseng Primary School.
Phumla Sekhonyane, spokesperson for the department, said that the boys “did not understand that it was an offence. They thought that they were playing,” she said.
The Gauteng Education department was informed of the incident by the local community and not the school, presumably because it was a regular occurrence at the school.
Provincial premier David Makhura and the MEC for education, Panyaza Lesufi, only intervened during August 2015.
The school’s governing body suspended the boys, between seven and ten years old, for five days while initiating a disciplinary process against them.
The department said, after consultation with parents and the school, that they were worried about the manner in which the incident was handled and that school safety procedures were not adhered to.
A few months before the MEC encountered a similar problem at a school in Petoria, and then admitted that it was an “issue that arises regularly”.
At the time, Lesufi ordered that counselling should be extended to the parents of all children.
Ten black boys appeared in the Durban Regional Court in February after the alleged gang rape of a 15-year old girl at a school in Lamontville. The police investigated the incident after a video of the rape was distributed on social media.
The video was allegedly posted by one of the boys involved who boasted about it, and came under the attention of police after a teacher had seen it and reported it.
Fifteen boys were arrested, with five of them appearing in the Durban Magistrate’s Court. The other ten, who were minors, were released into the custody of their parents.
Police are also investigating the alleged rape of a toddler (2) last month at a crèche in the Strand, Western Cape. A medical doctor confirmed her suspicion that the child was raped. Apparently, the toddler recently suffered anal rape and had old wounds on her female parts showing that she had previously also been raped.
Captain FC van Wyk, a police spokesman, confirmed that the police were investigating a charge of rape.
In the meantime, in another incident, the alleged rapist of a 14-year old girl whose bail application had been refused on 15 March in the local Magistrate’s Court, briefly appeared in court on Friday in Cradock. The name of the man, a married teacher, may not be mentioned until he has entered his plea.
The name of the school is also being withheld to protect the identity of the victim.