'Shame of a nation': 84 arrested after gang rape in South Africa

‘Shame of a nation’: 84 arrested after gang rape in South Africa

Mass sexual assault of eight women has shocked the country with the president denouncing ‘horrible acts of brutality’.

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South African Women take part in a protest against gender-based violence nationwide gatherings during 16 Days of Activism on November 28, 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. It is reported that about 200 protesters gathered outside parliament to protest against Gender Based Violence. (Photo by Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
The national police chief said a probe would establish if the suspects were linked to the rape as no one has been charged yet over the sexual assaults [File: Brenton Geach/Gallo Images/Getty Images]
Published On 1 Aug 20221 Aug 2022

More than 80 people arrested following a gang rape of eight South African women appeared before a court on Monday as the police minister described the assault as the “shame of the nation”. A gang of gunmen forced their way into a music video shoot near a mine dump in Krugersdorp, a small town west of Johannesburg, on Thursday. Eight young women from the cast were raped in an incident that shocked the country, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world.

“What happened in Krugersdorp is just a shame of the nation,” Police Minister Bheki Cele told a press briefing on Monday, adding some of the victims would suffer long-term consequences. “Some of those destructions are permanent with those kids.”
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It has also piled pressure on Cele, with critics contending law enforcement agencies are ill-equipped to tackle crime in the country, which has some of the highest murder rates in the world and has recently been hit by a spate of deadly shootings. In his Monday weekly newsletter, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the “horrible acts of brutality are an affront to the right of women and girls to live and work in freedom and safety” as he declared “rapists have no place in our society”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/1/shame-of-nation84-people-arrested-after-gang-rape-in-s-africa


South African police arrest more than 120 after gang-rape of eight women


Dozens of men detained after the alleged gang-rape of eight women on a music video shoot in South Africa are expected back in court on Wednesday as police made more arrests of artisanal miners blamed by local people for widespread violence. The arrests on Tuesday near Krugersdorp, a city north-west of Johannesburg, bring the total number of people detained since the attack to more than 120. None of the men and boys arrested, however, has reportedly been charged with sexual assault or rape. Police have said they hope DNA tests will enable them in coming days to connect some of those detained with the alleged gang-rape. The men expected in court on Wednesday, who are understood to be miners working in South Africa’s dangerous abandoned shafts, reportedly face charges including possession of firearms and illegal mining.

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“These horrible acts of brutality are an affront to the right of women and girls to live and work in freedom and safety. We call upon communities to work with the police to ensure that these criminals are apprehended and prosecuted,” he said.

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Women’s rights groups have expressed outrage at the attack. Thandiwe McCloy, speaking for the NGO People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa), called for more investment in programmes targeting men and their “negative attitudes towards women”, as well as a tightening of the justice system. “We need to ensure that there are more convictions for rape in order to send a strong message to would-be perpetrators that they will be punished for their crimes,” she said. “Only 8.6% of rape cases in South Africa result in conviction. The justice system is highly inefficient and there is often lack of proper investigations and delay on arrest or no arrest at all for perpetrators of gender-based violence. It often takes time for cases to go to trial, which sets survivors back in their healing process and in moving on with their lives. The huge DNA backlog results in cases taking a long time to be finalised.”

The education system also had a part to play, she said: “There needs to be more education from early childhood development level regarding the importance of gender equality. It’s important to socialise children to know that boys are not better than girls and that they are equal, from a young age.”

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/aug/03/south-african-police-arrest-more-than-120-after-gang-rape-of-eight-women