Some 40,000 rape cases have been brought before the magistrates' courts of South Africa between June 2008 and July this year but only a tenth of that number ended in convictions, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe has said.
"A total of 39,946 new rape cases were added to the rolls of magistrates' courts in all nine provinces in South Africa between July 1, 2008 and the end of June this year,"” Justice Minister Radebe told parliament on October 8 in a written report. KwaZulu-Natal courts recorded the highest number with over 7 000 cases during the period under review, Radebe said.
He said that this is an average of over 780 new cases nationally each working day. "Over the last year, the highest numbers of rape matters appearing in courts were in KwaZulu-Natal, which enrolled 7 278 cases, followed by Western Cape, which enrolled 6 411. Northern Cape enrolled the least number of cases at 1 462," Radebe said.
Radebe said a breakdown of the cases by age showed the majority of rapes were perpetrated by young adults, aged 21 to 30. According to reports, South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape in the world. It is said that a woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped than learning how to read.
This country also is said to have the highest incidences of child and baby rape in the world. The latest crime statistics showed 71,500 sexual offences were reported to police between March 2008 and March 2009, a 12 percent increase on the previous year. The government said that increase could be partly attributed to the inclusion of attacks on men. The last police rape statistics, which date from 2008, showed 132 cases of rape were reported per day countrywide - a figure activists believe to be a fraction of the real number of rapes.
South African President Jacob Zuma has taken a tough line on violent crime since being inaugurated in May 2009. Zuma's new police commissioner Bheki Cele has vowed to crack down on robbers, but has not proposed any specific measures around gender violence.
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