OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday
THE rape of girls under the age of 15 has doubled in the past 10 years – and one-third of the rapists are school teachers, according to the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) latest survey on the extent of sexual violence against girls in South Africa.
The Education Ministry’s Bheki Khumalo confirmed that some teachers failed girls who did not want to have sex with them. “It is a serious misuse of power. The minister views this as a case where teachers are destroying the innocence of children and we will quickly do something about it.”
Another survey shows that the occurrence of rape and attempted rape is nine times higher than reflected in police statistics, according to a report in daily newspaper Beeld. This is the first survey that supplies national information on gender-based violence.
The MRC research group on women’s health wanted to establish how many girls younger than 15 “have been forced or persuaded to have sex against their will”, said Dr Rachel Jewkes, research group director.
The demographic and health survey was carried out in 1998 among a representative group countrywide of 11 500 women between the ages of 15 and 49 years, said Beeld.
The majority of women who answered “yes”, had been raped between the ages of 10 and 14 years. In the majority of cases (33%), school teachers were the rapists, followed by relatives (25%), strangers (20%) and family friends (11%).
The MRC survey found 2 070 incidents of rape and attempted rape per 100000 women, compared to the police statistics of 244 incidents per 100000 women. Police statistics create the impression that the incidence of rape is not so serious, said Jewkes.
The demographic and health survey will again be carried out in 2003.