South African Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse is calling for conversations on sexual abuse against boys.University of Cape TownAs the country marks 16 days of no violence against women and children, there are renewed calls for the focus to include the boy child.
“I was powerless, I couldn’t do anything. It’s strange because you still trust that person, I thought it was my fault, I thought sometimes I allowed it to happen, I should’ve have spoken out. I should’ve ran out of the situation,” says Kotze. Gender rights groups say there is still a culture of silence in most communities. “The reality of one in three boys and one is three girls is that we need to start talking about it specifically in boys. The majority of boys in South Africa do not have a father figure; they do not have someone who they can look up at, the way things are supposed to be,” says South African Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse’s Rees Mann.