Shame on you, South Africa!

Usually I find a lot of reasons to love South Africa with its endless days of sunshine, stunning scenery, friendly people and the best wine and meat in the World. 

Only every now and then do I come across something that annoys me – the speed of the checkout assistants in supermarkets, that people do not recycle and that you cannot walk anywhere. But these things are generally pretty minor and I often get used to them quite quickly. 

But a couple of days ago, I came across something that shook me to the core, disgusted me and made me question not just South Africans but humanity in general. 

Reading the newspaper, I stumbled across two articles: 

“Uncle held for sex attack” reports how a 43 year old man raped his 10-month old niece and “Another Granny raped” tells the heart-breaking story of an 82-year old grandmother, who was raped in her house and nearly died during her ordeal. A couple of weeks ago, I had read about a 94-year old, partially deaf women who was raped in the presence of two of her twenty grandchildren; the 28 year old rapist was quickly released from prison courtesy of a special remission of sentence deal announced by South Africa’s favourite rapist – President Jacob Zuma. 

Even though the fact that rape is common in South Africa, especially among the black population, is nothing new to me; I was shocked about the extent it has reached these days. Traditionally South Africa is a culture that respects its elders – the fact that grandmothers are now falling victim to rapists points to deep-routed problems in society. 

Traditionally in the African culture (and many other ones), men have been the providers and protectors of their families and both men and women consider the primary role of men to be that of an income-earner and breadwinner for the family. A good husband provides food, clothes and shelter for his family, pays the medical bills and school fees and keeps his family in good comfort. Often, men’s perception of their status, respect and power depends heavily on the amount of income they generate. 

This picture of a good man might be outdated in the Western World, but is still very much alive in Africa and other developing countries. And this relationship between work opportunities and self-esteem brings a lot of problems for men in bad economic times… 

In South Africa, a country with so much unemployment and so little perspectives, men are struggling to earn enough income to support their families; often women are forced to work or children go to bed hungry and cold. So when jobs are rare and earnings low, men feel disempowered and deprived of their traditional roles. And this perceived loss of power and respect pushes some to regain it in other ways – often through violent behaviour towards women and children…of all ages.