Nombulelo pupils participated in the Silent Protest recently. Speaker Professor Pumla Gqola (author of Rape: A South African Nightmare) encouraged learners from Makhanda schools to start critically analysing the norms in our country that allow our alarming number of rapes to happen. “If everyone ostracised men who made inappropriate comments about women, perhaps fewer people would think that rape may be tolerated,” she said. She encouraged rape victims to seek counselling, but said that society should be careful of putting the responsibility on the victims to speak out about rape. “What we need to start speaking out about is rapists. If every second woman in the country is likely to be raped, do the maths,” she said. “It must be our sons and husbands and brothers and friends and ‘crushes’ doing the raping.” Photo: Nicci Hayes
