A study in the Northern Cape has found there is no truth in the myth that babies are raped because of a belief that HIV can be cured by sex with a virgin.
The study by the Women’s Health Project was done in Galeshewe, a small township in Kimberley, Northern Cape, where the population is 90,4% African and 8,4% coloured. The Women’s Health Project was founded in 1991 as a research NGO that seeks to advance the status of women and improve their health.
The group presented its findings at the Barcelona Aids Conference in June. The findings dismiss oft-repeated media speculation that babies are raped because of HIV/Aids.
“We chose to do the study in Galeshewe because of the media hype around rape in the Northern Cape at the time [of the baby Tshepang rape],” says Latasha Treger, a senior programme officer at the project.
President Thabo Mbeki, during his tour of Gauteng last month, attributed the high incidence of child rape in the country to coloured communities in the Northern Cape because of their history of alcohol abuse and broken homes.
Rachel Jewkes, director of the gender and health unit at the Medi-cal Research Council, says that child rape cannot be attributed to a single factor. She added that a survey of 11 000 women revealed that rapes, especially child rapes, occurred among all races.
Treger says police reports indicate that more rapes are committed in Galeshewe than in most other areas.
The Women’s Health Project study investigated three theories: cleansing, prevention and vengeance. The cleansing theory is the belief that sleeping with a virgin or a grandmother can cleanse a man of HIV. The prevention theory leads men to choose young girls as partners because they believe they cannot get HIV from a virgin. The vengeance theory is that rape occurs as a result of men spreading the HI virus so that they will not have to die alone.
The study found that 60% of participants first heard of the cleansing theory in the media. These beliefs are not a discussion point within the community.
“However, within the community, the idea of spreading the HI virus so that individuals will not die alone seems to be fuelling the spread of HIV and possibly rape,” says Treger.
She says that the findings show that many people do not believe the virgin cleansing myth or think that people within their communities act on this myth.
She says that Galeshewe is similar to the rest of the Northern Cape because of its high rates of unemployment, alcohol abuse and poverty.
The study sampled 338 randomly selected individuals older than 16 and investigated all three theories about the increase in the number of child rapes. The most controversial finding was that nearly two out of 10 respondents believed that having sex with a child younger than 10 was not an act of rape.
Treger says these individuals did not consider it sexual molestation, but merely an act of sex.
“The state defines sex with someone under the age of 16 as rape. This is confusing for a lot of men/adolescent boys in the community because … it is very common in the community for 21-year-old men to have sex with 12-year-old girls.
“What is difficult for them to understand is that often girls of 12 cannot really consent. The notion of power and gender power relations is often at play. For young girls under 16 to go out with older men (over 21) is seen as a status thing for the girls.”
The study found that most of the group were able to identify what constitutes an act of rape.
Adolescent girls between 13 and 21 were perceived to be most at risk of being raped.
The study also found that 12,9% believed that people in their community thought women asked to be raped. A quarter agreed with the statement: “People in your community believe that a man who is sexually aroused by a woman wearing revealing clothes has the right to rape her.”
More than half believed that a husband had the right to have sex with his wife whenever he wanted to. But most of the group did not believe that a man had the right to have sex with his girlfriend because he had bought her gifts.
Jewkes says South Africa has been bombarded with media reports of horrendous child rapes over the past year, creating the perception that child rapes were on the increase. She says she has not seen an increase in child rapes but rather concerted efforts by the media to search for cases and give them prominence.
She says a study in 1998 to 1999 at the Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg found that of the 227 rape cases reviewed, 42 of the victims were younger than three.
Since 1996 20 000 child rapes a year have been reported in South Africa.
“We have always had child rapes and it is inappropriate to search for the one factor that causes rape. All studies on [rape] causation conclude that there are multiple factors.”
Jewkes says that alcohol abuse is also used as an excuse in rape, but she believes that “people should take responsibility for their actions”.
Child rape in South Africa is the result of a complex situation caused by the social dynamics of male hierarchy and violence against women and children, she says.
“The idea that having sex with a virgin cleanses you of Aids does exist in South Africa and there have been reported cases of this as a motivating factor for child rape, but the predominant evidence suggests that this is infrequently the case.”
Jewkes believes rape ought to be redefined. She says the word “rape” is a red herring and should be replaced with a phrase like “coercive sex”, especially in the case of family rapes.
Rape is about violence directed against women and girls, she says, and is a result of the marked gender inequalities in our society. South Africa has a culture of male sexual entitlement and a climate of relative impunity in which rape is perpetrated.
“The root of the problem of infant rape, as with rape of older girls and women, substantially lies at these more mundane doors. It should be regarded as part of the spectrum of sexual violence against women and girls,” Jewkes says.
Child rapes are not unique to South Africa. Jewkes found reports of child rape cases in other Southern African countries, such as Namibia and Botswana, as well as in the Philippines, Britain and Canada.
“Child rapes happen everywhere, but in South Africa we have a far higher rate.”
Part of the solution is to build a climate of respect for women and girl children where perpetrators get convicted for these crimes, says Jewkes.
“Society must look at gender relations, reduce poverty and start sending out clear messages to boys in schools.”