WARNING: South African Men are Rapist Friendly

BE WARNED: South African Men Are Rapist Friendly

 

When I stripped naked in 2007 as a protest action against rape, I had no idea that I was embarking on a lifelong journey of using my voice for rape survivors. At the time I myself had never been raped so I did not realise the magnitude of the trauma emotionally and spiritually. Today I speak from a new place of understanding the trauma of rape and how victims behave in ways that do not make sense to society.

 

I was raped at thirty years old, long after I had done the campaign. The biggest shock for me was that girls, who are as strong and opinionated as me, also get raped. Because when it comes to rape it is about physical power and not about opinions. I, like millions of women could not fight off my rapist because as skinny as he was, he was stronger than me. And that’s the thing, physiologically men are built stronger than women and there is nothing we can do about it. Its biology, this is the reason we say ‘real men,’ because in reality we acknowledge that men are physically stronger than women and theirs is to be responsible with that physical power. Men and women are equal but different. Spiritually and mentally is where women prove themselves stronger than men. But when it comes to  the physical body, it is up to men to be responsible with the physical power they have. To those that much is given, much is expected. Women take their brains and build you homes, you take your physical strength and rape them. Something is very wrong with you.

 

South Africa has the highest rape statistics in the world. This is in black and white. It is self evident in the daily hashtags. This means that every South African man is either a rapist or rapist friendly. By rapist friendly I mean when the issue of rape arises they will be the first to defend the False Rape Allegations, the first to question the victim, the first to not acknowledge the rape. They will be the last to call out a rapist. Don’t expect men who live in South Africa to protect victims because the men living in south Africa are the rapists. The statistics are telling us that we are complaining about crime to the criminals.

 

It is likely that MOST men living in South Africa have raped at least one person in their lifetime. It is very likely because MOST women living in South Africa have been raped. Women are not raping themselves.

 

The justice system is controlled by men. If one and one is two then can I say that the justice system is controlled by rapists? Is that not the reason why catching rapists is not a priority in this country despite the fact that we have the most rapists in the world? Are victims not pressing charges BECAUSE the system is geared towards protecting the rights and dignity of the rapist? When it is so evidently clear that we have a problem of rapists in south Africa why are we so diligent about defamation cases more than rape allegations? How come we’re paying more attention to the lie than the truth. The truth is south Africa has the most rapists in the world. How have we gotten to a place where men are making us focus on less than 5% false claims when we should be focusing on the 80% of women who have been raped? Rapists are really winning in this country because not only does the law work in their favour, but society will protect them too.

 

At work, churches and even in our homes we have seen so many rape allegations being swept under the carpet while we pretend the allegations did not happen. We are more concerned with people’s reputations than the fact this person could have violated someone and is a danger to society. A man just has to say, ‘It wasn’t me,’ and society will believe them and move on. What if that man is lying? He will continue to rape because society has given him permission.

 

What is our way forward as a community with regards to the rape pandemic in South Africa? We have reached a state of emergency where we have become de-sensitized and more women are getting raped. This cannot be okay because if this is normal then it is my responsibility to warn every, single woman in the world to play far away from South African men…..because they will rape you .