More than half the victims of rape in Johannesburg's southern metro region know their assailants, says Professor Neil Andersson, who heads the Southern Metropolitan Local Council (SMLC) and the NGO CIETafrica's enquiry into sexual violence in the south of Johannesburg.

Asked who the rapists are, Professor Andersson likens everyday sexual violence in the south metro region to the days of the week. "If we compare all rapes to the hours and days of the week, all of two days would be taken by rape occurring in the home by a relative -- most frequently a father, stepfather or uncle. The next two of the seven days, the rapists are also known to their victims -- a neighbour, a date, or an acquaintance. Three days of the week would be taken up by strangers and the last hour and a half (0.9%) are gang rapes or Jack Rollers."

Jack Rolling and gang rape are only tips of a massive iceberg of sexual violence. According to Professor Andersson, these barbaric acts are extreme expressions of a widespread culture of sexual violence.

The sample of nearly 4000 women interviewed during the enquiry reported harassment in the workplace, beatings and rape, including the vicious extremes of gang rape and Jack Rolling.

In the last year alone, three out of every ten women across the whole local authority had suffered a severe form of sexual violence.

The most vicious of these attacks are, however, the least likely to be reported: less than one half of the victims of gang rape reported the incidents, whereas eight out of ten of other rapes are reported to the police.

And rape is by no means confined to the townships. The survey covered communities from Braamfontein in the northern reaches of the local council, through to the rural informal settlements of Orange Farm in the south; from Zola in the west of Soweto through to City Deep in the east. In every one of these areas, women reported being raped and beaten.

While the innovative SMLC/CIET fact-finding initiative has produced some shattering findings on the extent of sexual violence, its actual focus is on men. More than 2000 men were also interviewed, to try to identify what is the difference between men who do not have to rape or gang up to victimise women, and the weaker men for whom sexual violence is an outlet for their inadequacy.

The next step is to take the evidence back to the communities in the South, to discuss what makes some men resilient to sexual violence, and help residents find community-led solutions to the problem, building on their strengths.

The SMLC/CIET enquiry is funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Issued by Marina Penderis,
Information officer, CIETafrica
Tel: 083-457-6872
Email: CIETinfo@compuserve.com