BORN ON THE CONTINENT

Copyright 1999. Getrude Matshe

I have decided on the title of my book, "Born on the Continent".

It is an appropriate platform to express all my experiences as an African woman born on this continent. The article that appeared in the Washington post on the 12th October entitled "South African TV Ad Exposes Sensitivities" about the commercial on rape by Charlize Theron is just a small part of the issues we experience living on this continent. We live in a patriarchal society, where women are second rate citizens, without a voice, without protection, and with very few choices.

Violence against women and children is the norm, for some of us who are fortunate enough to live in the fairly rich urban WHITE areas of Johannesburg, we will get fairly fast response time if we call the police for help. Just imagine the plight of a seven year old girl in East London, Eastern Cape who is snatched from her school, is viscously raped and assaulted. The girl spent four days in hospital having her genitals, which were torn in the attack treated.

Her school reported the snatching soon after it happened but the police said that they had no transport to come and assist. The rapist (22) was arrested after the attack but was back on the school playing field two days later. His case was dismissed owing to lack of evidence. The victims mother said she had taken care to keep her daughter unwashed to preserve DNA evidence. But the investigating officer was booked off sick and therefore no evidence was presented. He walked.

These are the statistics: -

• One out of three women will be raped in their lifetime in South Africa.
• Three-quarters of women say sexual violence is common in their communities.
• One in three Johannesburg schoolgirls have been raped or sexually assaulted.
• One in ten schoolboys admitted to having raped or sexually assaulted a girl.
• One in 400 rapes lead to convictions.
• 7% of rape cases were prosecuted last year.
• Although the law states that life sentence is imposed on rapist of children below the age of sixteen, a Cape Town judge two weeks ago sentenced a man to seven years for raping his own daughter. He said that the man "posed no threat to society" and that seven years was long enough because his daughter would have left home by the time he was released.
• Government is not funding post-rape prophylaxis(anti-Aids drugs).
• Because survivors cannot afford the bus, train or taxi fare, the time traveled or accommodation costs to get to the court, most cases fall away.
• Last year 21 000 of the 37 000 child abuse cases reported to the police were sexual abuse; in all there were 65 000 cases of adults and children reported to police.

This is the reality in which we live, a reality for most women born on the continent.

What angers me the most is how the world suddenly looks up and notices because a TV commercial has been banned. Yet the powers that be in this country do nothing. They are aware of the statistics and the problem but nothing is done. The violence continues. And remember these are the reported cases, what about the domestic violence and rape of women by their husbands, or young women by their boyfriends that are never reported. Rapes are so frequent it takes an attack of exceptional cruelty to attract public attention.

The case of the 14 year old girl in Cape Town who was gang raped, stabbed 32 times and had her throat slit and survived long enough to name her killers before she died was sensationalized because all of this took place while an entire street ignored her screams. The community finally demolished the abandoned house where it happened. They all knew it was a haven for gangsters but it took a child's death to wake them up.

Communities have now decided to take the law into their own hands, because the police are not responding to their calls, the judicial system doesn't work if any of these cases reach the courts and rapists have been castrated and burned to death.

Forward questions and comments to Getrude Matshe. E-mail: simzisani@hotmail.com

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