Rape in Africa – Is It the Tip of the Iceberg?

Written by: La'Kitgum on 27th May 2013

BY GWYNNE DYER, The Star, May 26, 2013

In June, 2009, South Africa's Medical Research Council published a report which said that over a quarter of South African men – 27.6 percent – have raped somebody.
London — Keeping a file of random clippings is an old-fashioned thing to do, but sometimes it offers you unexpected connections. Sometimes it's a connection that you don't even want to see. But there it is, so what are you going to do about it?

In June, 2009, South Africa's Medical Research Council published a report which said that over a quarter of South African men – 27.6 percent – have raped somebody. Almost half of those men admitted to raping two or three women or girls. One in thirteen of the self-confessed rapists said they had raped at least ten victims.

The study was a model of statistical rigour. It used a Statistics South Africa model of one male interviewee in each of 1,738 households across all racial groups and income levels in both rural and urban areas. Half of the men interviewed were under 25 years old; 70 percent of the rapists had forced a woman or girl into sex for the first time when they were under 20.

I found another report claiming that 40 percent of South African women can expect to be raped during their lives, but I had nothing to add to the discussion so I just filed the information away. Then last November I saw a report in The Guardian about

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Gwokto La'Kitgum