“South Africa has the highest rape statistics of any country not currently at war,” says Larissa Klazinga, the organiser of Anti Sex Crimes Week.
The week began on Monday at Rhodes University with an address given by Nomboniso Gasa, an activist who has made headway in investigating the sex-crime pandemic in South Africa.
“South Africa has the highest rape statistics of any country not currently at war,” says Larissa Klazinga, the organiser of Anti Sex Crimes Week.
The week began on Monday at Rhodes University with an address given by Nomboniso Gasa, an activist who has made headway in investigating the sex-crime pandemic in South Africa.
Gasa stressed the importance of creating spaces of engagement for understanding the nature of the problem.
She spoke about tolerance and the need for a new discourse, saying that people often have a ‘we accept you because there is nothing else to do’ mindset, “which needs to be thrown out the window.”
Gasa feels that we need to create our own language of talking about the issue and leave an “inheritance for future generations”.
Through highlighting myths which have become truisms within our societies, she says that firstly, the myth of the threatened black man should be unravelled.
She highlighted the question that men often ask; “Kanti kubusa bani?” (who holds the power?).
For example, in a taxi, if a woman sits next to the driver her thigh becomes part of the gear-changing process.
This is a sex-crime. However, in that space the taxi driver is in control. The second myth is that homosexual or transgendered children are “only experimenting”.
Many societies feel that a child exploring their sexuality is abnormal.Children are made to feel ashamed for their experimentation and face an alienation from their bodies.
Heterosexuality is the norm and homosexuality is seen as a deviant says Gasa, stressing “we need to go back to the drawing board.”
Today, we live in a society which reinforces patriarchy. “We need to unpack who is in power,” says Gasa, and form new relationships between men, women and children.
She stressed the need to better reinforce our legislature and hold those in power accountable. She used the example that in state addresses the murder of lesbians is often swept under the rug, with “Zuma choking on the word sexism”.
Benjamin Fogel, a student, during a question and answer session said that culture and religion have become masks behind which people hide their atrocities.
He felt that claims to morality need to be critically analysed before they are accepted, speaking in reference to the sex-crimes of the Roman Catholic Church.
Gasa agreed, saying: “No space is sacred where sex-crimes are taking place.” Larissa Klazinga echoed the message, “Women’s bodies remain battlegrounds with wars of culture, tradition and patriarchal power raging throughout the country.
Until men abandon their need to dominate, we will continue to bury women in our undeclared war.”
