Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s call for rapists to be chemically castrated is political grandstanding as she jockeys for place forward of the ANC’s December elective convention, consultants say.
Her headline-grabbing assertion this week has been regarded by consultants and activists as “not well informed” and a transparent indication of “political opportunism”.
According to Sisulu – carrying her hat as chair of the ANC’s subcommittee on social transformation – reducing the degrees of male hormones or androgens would help in coping with endemic abuse of ladies and kids.
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However, activist and researcher Lisa Vetten informed The Citizen that authorities had the duty of fixing what was at the moment not working within the justice system and society earlier than trying for new methods to punish offenders.
“It’s really alarming that a minister, who is in a government with a national strategic plan that emphasises the role of gender inequality, the way children are seeing the power relations in relation to adults [and] gender language, can honestly come up with a solution like chemical castration,” she stated.
“This seems to suggest the problem of rape is just one of excess hormones, but has nothing to do with society; nothing to do with power relations. It’s just a problem of too much testosterone.”
She stated primarily based on analysis, no less than 50% to 60% of reported rapes resulted in arrests and “overall again, depending on which province you’re in, on average, about seven percent of reported rapes result in a conviction”, which results in a tiny share of circumstances being eligible for chemical castration.
“If you look at the research done internationally, it doesn’t necessarily suggest this works, for a simple reason it doesn’t necessarily stop sexual activity in everybody who is castrated chemically,” she stated.
“It doesn’t mean men can’t get erections or won’t have sexual feelings. So it’s one very big flaw. “It really doesn’t always work in the way it’s assumed.”
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Speaking throughout a webinar on Tuesday, Sisulu quoted a latest report indicating South Africa had the best charge of kid pregnancies on the earth, and described the scenario as “horrific”.
“We cannot have this kind of scourge on our children growing up in our society. It speaks to statutory rape,” Sisulu stated.
“Impregnating children and human trafficking are so contrary to the Freedom Charter, there is a need to protect our people from this.”
Vetten stated the National Prosecuting Authority’s annual studies for the final 10 years, from 2010-11 to 2020-21, confirmed a gentle decline within the variety of circumstances being put down for trial, so the variety of circumstances leading to a conviction have been additionally lowering.
If convictions went up, stated Vetten, it might give survivors a higher sense of justice.
“If they were to focus on what’s wrong in the police – they can’t arrest perpetrators and that’s what’s wrong. In the prosecuting authority, they are becoming increasingly less able to prosecute and convict,” Vetten stated.
Ngaa Murombedzi, spokesperson for anti-child abuse organisation Women and Men Against Child Abuse, stated South Africa upheld “non-derogable rights, including the right to life and the right to not be tortured”, which fashioned the premise of the abolishment of the dying penalty.
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“In that regard, the minister’s call is a violation of provisions of the Bill of Rights as per the constitution,” she stated.
“However, the balance of infringing upon a perpetrator’s rights and observing the victim’s rights is something our courts still battle with. In that regard, as civil society organisations we often find the justice system fails our victims.”
Political analyst Dr Levy Ndou stated it was not a matter of politicising, however simply ladies within the nation addressing a matter of nice concern, saying sufficient is sufficient towards the leniency of SA’s justice system and having harsher measures.
“GBV [gender-based violence] is a challenge in South Africa. You are going to get many, many views on how it has to be dealt,” he stated.
“And because some people might feel they have had enough they would then want measures to punish; to be a bit harsher than the measures we currently have.”
– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za
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