Who do South Africans think does the raping in this country — the level of rape that one sees in active conflict zones? The scale of rape that it gets to be called by what it is — a femicide?know about the threat of violence
The words of Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga last week were a psycho-social blow to those who live in a country where rape is an unrelenting tsunami of terror. These words came from an elected official; the chief administrator of those who are most vulnerable to rape: Children. Learners at schools.
Her comments would lead us to believe that where those who are uneducated rape, we must give them a pass because they don’t know better. This is nonsense. Men do know better. This is the harmful apologia on whichI am fortunate enough to never have been raped. I have been harassed, touched without consent, cat-called. Women think that these things are normal, but when you really grapple with the hierarchy of rape culture you realise this is abuse too.
be said is this: whether educated or not, whether sophisticated or not, the threat of rape in society works to benefit all men as much as it works to destroy women and queer persons, physically, emotionally and spiritually.