Johannesburg, countrywide | Monday
CHAOS reigned in South Africa over the weekend as dozens more children were raped and abused across the country.
A five-month-old baby became one of the latest victims, raped by two men in Joubert Park, Johannesburg.
In the Free State, boys aged four, six and 10, were accused of gang-raping their seven-year-old friend near Harrismith.
In another incident, a man allegedly paid eight young girls 50 cents each for showing him their private parts.
Johannesburg police representative Captain Lungelo Dlamini said two men, aged 17 and 24, were arrested for the Joubert Park baby rape on Saturday night.
Dlamini said the child was raped after her 24-year-old mother apparently left her alone inside a room in a building previously used as a cinema.
”When the baby’s mother returned… (she) discovered that the child was bleeding and rushed the baby to the hospital.”
The girl went to theatre on Saturday night in the Johannesburg Hospital for examination.
The senior matron on call said she was in a stable condition, but was unable to say whether the girl had undergone an HIV test.
Free State police spokeswoman Captain Veronica Ntepe said a woman, four teenagers, and ten children aged between six and 12, were sexually abused in several incidents in the Bethlehem area in the eastern Free State over the weekend.
On Saturday, a seven-year-old girl in Intabazwe near Harrismith told her mother she had been raped by four boys — two of them aged 10, the others four and six years old.
The five of them were playing in the street when the four boys ordered her to lie on the ground. They took turns in raping her. Police said the boys would probably be arrested and be sent for counselling.
In another incident, a man allegedly approached eight girls, aged between six and nine, who were playing at a site in Ladybrand. He ordered them to pull down their panties. He licked their private parts and masturbated on them.
Each girl was then given 50 cents and the man walked away.
Ntepe said the man was wearing black denim jeans, a blue shirt and white takkies. He is of average build, light in complexion and has grey hair.
In another case, a 13-year-old boy was allegedly sodomised by his friend, aged about 15, who attempted to drown him afterwards. The incident happened on Friday around 8.30pm at a river between Petsana and Reitz.
Also in the Reitz area, a 17-year-old girl was raped by two men at Bietjiewater picnic spot on Saturday.
Two of her school friends followed her to the toilet and overpowered her. No arrests were made.
On Friday, two friends aged 17 and 19, were allegedly raped by their boyfriends and two other men in Tebang Village, Makwane in the Qwa Qwa area. The two boyfriends, aged 18 and 22, were arrested.
A 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her stepfather in Bereng township near Bethlehem on Friday. She reported the matter to the police and the man was arrested.
In the last incident in the Free State, a 25-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-girl in the Kestell district. The girl went outside on Friday night to go to the toilet and the man followed her. He threatened her with a pair of scissors and then allegedly raped her.
At least three cases of child rapes were reported in the Northern Cape over the weekend.
The 32-year-old uncle of a six-year-old girl was arrested for allegedly raping and sodomising her in Wrenchville, Kuruman, on Saturday afternoon, Superintendent Hendrik Swart said.
A 16-year-old girl was raped by two men in Postdene, Postmasburg on Friday night.
A 14-year-old girl was raped by four men in Newtown, Postmasburg, around 3am on Saturday.
In the Eastern Cape a crowd of 200 people stoned and beat a man who had allegedly raped a ten-year-old girl in Kamesh township outside Uitenhage on Sunday morning.
The girl was asleep at 1.30am when her mother’s boyfriend allegedly raped her and then tried to sodomise her, Inspector Marianette Olivier said.
In another incident in Uitenhage, a two-year-old girl from KwaNobuhle township was raped by a 15-year-old family member. He is still missing.
Other cases in the area include the rape of five victims ranging in age from 14 to 83.
In Delville, Germiston, a man was arrested on Friday for indecently assaulting a five-year-old girl over a period of five months, Superintendent Andy Pieke said.
Northern Cape safety MEC Connie Seoposengwe said on Saturday there was a growing myth in South Africa that Aids could be cured by having intercourse with a baby or a virgin.
Seoposengwe visited the family of a two-and-a-half-year-old baby girl in Port Nolloth, who was raped by a 19-year-old man last week.
In Hlogotlou in the Northern Province a 12-year-old boy was arrested on Friday after allegedly sodomising a nine-year-old boy at their school in Dindela Village, police said.
Captain Isaac Magakwe said the boy allegedly sexually molested the nine-year-old in May and the matter was apparently resolved at the school when the parents of the two boys were called in.
A charge was laid on Friday after the boy allegedly repeated the act on Monday.
He was arrested and released in custody of his guardian and will appear at the Nebo Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
The New National Party on Sunday called for an emergency plan to address the increasing number of child rapes.
”The government should send out a clear message that child rapists will be tracked down and removed from society,” safety and security representative Andr Gaum said in a statement.
He said an ”Operation Crackdown” to deal with child abuse should be put in place.
”The government’s plan to introduce harsher sentences and stricter bail conditions for these criminals should be implemented as a matter of extreme urgency, even if it would mean that Parliament has to be reconvened.” – Sapa