Violence in South Africa

Commenter Document de Civilisation

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Contents
I. General context 3

Article 1 - “South Africa Profile” 3

II. Social violence 6

a- Xenophobia 6

Article 2 - “Crime not only on our doorstep – it’s inside.” 6

b- Sexual violence 10

Article 3 - “South African rapist: 'Forgive me'.” 10

c- Further the sexual violence. 13

Article 4 - “The virgin cleansing myth :

cases of child rape are not exotic.” 13
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Introduction
South Africa has always known violence. Indeed, it all began in 1652,
when the first settlers established their colonies. Native people were expelled,
enslaved, or killed. Between 1871 and 1886, after the discovery of diamond and
gold, Britain declared war to the Boers. Hence, the Anglo-Boer War contributed
to a great part of violence in the country. In 1948, South Africa underwent
Apartheid, a legal racial segregation. People were kicked out of their home,
displaced into special areas, this, by the law. Black People had less power than
White. This segregation led to a deep social gap between the different ethnic
groups present, thus provoking latent and obvious tensions. ANC, the political
party created in 1912, fought the Apartheid with its most famous figure, Nelson
Mandela.

Nowadays these tensions are more visible. For instance, the rising of
criminality rate and rape puts South Africa in first place amid the countries with
the most homicides per capita. Historical facts explain this violence. However,
even after many walkouts and great personalities, like Nelson Mandela, who
had tried to change the country; South Africa remains in the same state:
intolerance, rapes, murders and robberies are the daily lives of millions of
people in South Africa.

Through four articles, we will explain the causes of such violence by

exploring many aspects of it.
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I. General context
Article 1 - “South Africa Profile”

This document is an article about general information on South Africa. It

was updated on August the 9th of 2011 by
BBC News. It is entitled “South Africa
Profile”. The journalist sums up different
historical facts from 1948 to 2010. Three
major parts are present in his report: firstly
White at power and disaster of Apartheid,
then, Black government and finally, space
reorganization. He is very objective and
neutral in his article so we have
supposedly non-judgmental facts on South
Africa.

The content of this passage is quite straightforward and linear. Firstly, we

shall discuss the post-Apartheid issue until its establishment and then
concentrate on the Black accession to power.

In the very beginning, the journalist recalls the status of South Africa by
using many cultural characteristics: many official languages, cohabitation of
many religions, the importance of the rugby; but at the middle of the sentence
a discomfort began. Indeed the author talks
about returned exiles, traditional healers
(this point has to be note, we will go back
later in another article) and the gap
between very big houses and mud houses.
The author shows us the trivialization of the

difference between rich and

poor people. We know that
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robbery is caused by envy. Afterward, he tells us that only white people had the
right to be elected; this is another source of conflict. This politics of segregation
continued and was at its higher point in 1948, when Apartheid was installed in
South Africa. It has happened recently, people remember it, and if it is not the
case, they had got time to
convey their anger to the
actual generation. The
resettlement of apartheid has created tensions, and the police actions
contributed to them. All of us remind the Sharpeville Incident, when police
opened fire on a walkout of Black People, which protested against Pass Laws.
The government poisoned, bombed and even encouraged troubles for keep this
part of the population under control, as the popular motto says: “Divide and
Rule”. All these actions have made a deep resentment from black to white
people in South Africa. “Social disruption” is the exact term used by the author
to describe what apartheid lets in the country. The violence is the direct result
of the apartheid, because of the social division. After apartheid, South Africa
had to face problems it had engendered. First of all leaders had to reorganize
spaces, the transition was difficult for all. Recently in 2009, South Africa has
entered in Recession, for the second time of its history. This shows us that even
after twenty years under Apartheid, scars still present and visible. The
precarious of many South Africans is alarming. Many amid them do not have
money to buy medicine, or to live correctly. This is another upshot of apartheid
and of an old system which favored a part of the population. The resettlement
has made another singularity; most of the farmlands are owned by white
people and many of laborers are black. It is another factor of tension. White
owners do not want to leave their lands and black do not want to stay poor.
South Africa is one of the most countries ravaged by AIDS; the author highlights
this information by saying that South Africa is the “second-highest number of
HIV/Aids patients in the world”.

Because of all these factors South Africa has known a high rising of violence.
We may say that history favored this situation. Many resentments are present
in the population, and come from different group; Whites, Blacks, Coloreds. In a
country which searching its identity after many years of repression and
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violence, people must work together to build up their homeland, and enforced
the social link.
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II. Social violence

a - Xenophobia
Our second article will explain the first violence that we all know, the physical
violence. In our first article we notice a sentence: “a wave of violent attacks
against migrant workers from other African countries in 2008”. The poverty and
the migration make other tension and people have found in strangers the
perfect person to blame.

Article 2 - “Crime not only on our doorstep – it’s inside.”

This document is an article extracted from City Press, a South African Sunday
weekly. It is entitled “Crime not only on our doorstep – it’s inside”, and was
published on September 11th, 2011. Because this article is recently published,
we can infer that it is a good testimony of the actual situation on violence. After
an introductory passage, in which the author explains who the actual criminals
of South Africa are, he gives several facts which choked public opinion to
illustrate his first argument. We shall first concentrate on these strangers, and
then we will talk about these facts which choked the public opinion, and we will
finally move on the solution put forward by the author.

Picture 5 - Strikes against xenophobia

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First of all, we notice that the author begins his article by “it has taken us
years to figure out”. He does a balance sheet of a deep and old prejudice:
strangers are the problem of the violence. Nevertheless, a recent police report
highlights that most of crimes are committed by close people. Family,
neighbors, friends, acquaintances are a great majority of these criminals. These
crimes are numerous: physical violence, murder, rape, assault are the daily
injuries. By reading the article, we learn that an old belief was to imagine
strangers behind walls, waiting for attack some people, but the author insists
on the true criminals by repeating twice the same argument in two different
paragraphs; close people are the criminals. This is an important argument,
because the journalist wants to create an awareness of the population and to

prevent them from their own family and friends the threat comes from their
relatives. He also wants to ease tensions between local people and foreigners.

To illustrate his comments, he gives many examples. We will discuss about

them, because they give us the different type of actual violence which ravage
the country.

The first choking element, is that selling of a DVD in which children from four
to fifteen was forced to perform pornographic acts, by their grandparents,
uncles and aunts. By the sale of this pedophile video, the family wanted to
make money. We can suppose that the family was poor and saw here a solution
to their problems. The money factor can lead to the worst of atrocities. The
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second element is a young girl of six years old. She was raped and killed by the
uncle of her friend. Extreme violence in this act cannot be explained, in my
opinion. The little girl was raped and killed, and then threw like a rubbish on a
church wall. The child was gnawed by animals. This act of cruelty shows the
violence present in the country. In 2008, the world would able to see that
xenophobia is a big problem in South Africa. The sixth picture of the dossier
shows a man who has been literary lighted up. This man was a foreigner.
Number of South Africans declaimed that foreigners are taking their jobs and
raising the criminality through the country.

The last part of the text is a kind of request from the author to the
population of South Africa.

Indeed he said very clearly that

people must act against this violence,
because these persons, these criminals
are their “criminals with whom [they]
live, work and socialize”. The reporter
lists some causes that could explain the
violence. These “symptoms” as he said
flow from other society’s ills as drug
abuse, alcoholism, unemployment,
poverty, and the lack of psychological
support. After that he challenges
readers by saying that this problem is a problem of society, none the police
problem only. He sees this fight as a war that can be won with the support of
police forces and the support of the population. He highlights the fact that the
government has already taken preventive measures to fight against this
phenomenon, and the strong determination of the President, Jacob Zuma, in
this fight. Indeed, due to the writer, if someone had a bad reputation, or if
someone’s acts are objectionable, he shall fire them.

In conclusion, we can note that these elements present in the text are very
important, because we can see the source of the violence. Actually we know
that violence comes from South African themselves, and many people are
aware of this and have already ringed the alarm.
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b - Sexual violence
We have seen a part of the reasons that explain the violence. But there is
another sort of pressure present in the country. Women and girls are the first
victims of South African actual violence, which can be explained by many
factors.

Article 3 - “South African rapist: 'Forgive me'.”

This document is the testimony of a

man, Dumisani Rebombo. It was published
in the British Newspaper, BBC News, on
June 25th, 2009. Dumisami explains that
when he was younger he participated with
his friend to a rape. This is an important
article because we will be able to better
understand the living conditions of the
South African. This text is separated in
three major parts. We shall first highlight
social pressures of this act, then we shall discuss about the reaction of people
before it, and we will finally show what Dumisami has done in his research of
forgiveness.

The social pressure is very present in the South Africa society. Indeed,
people live through the eyes of other. The education is a key element of a
society, but in this case, South African model is a very macho model, in which
man has to prove it status with many tests. Two of them are specified in the
text, young men are circumcised during an initiation rite and they have to have
a girlfriend. Mr. Rebombo was the subject of jeers at school when he was
fifteen, and everyone was saying that he wasn’t man enough. These jeers were
his daily. One day, his cousin and his friend, pressured him to participate to a
rape of a girl in order to prove that he was a man and to punish the young girl
because of her personal choice (indeed, she refused to go out with local boys).
He said that he “succumbed to this daily pressure”; we can clearly see that it
was a strong persecution, and to be free from this harassment, he just did what
his cousin and this close friend asked him to do. The man said after that he was
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scared, and the other persons just gave him marijuana and alcohol. We saw in
our second article that alcoholism and drug abuse were two of possible reason
of the rising of violence in South Africa. This act demonstrates that South
Africans are clearly exposed to these factors. And he did this horrible act, with
his friend.

We have just seen how a social pressure can influence a young boy of fifteen
years old, but the consequences stay for years.

The rape is considered as a good thing by young people, because after he

did it, Dumisami was not the subject of jeers, on contrary; people encourage
him and said that what he did well. And at this moment it is clearly said that he
would able to associate with the other boys. You were considered as a marginal
if you could not prove that you were a man.
This is another sort of violence, to force
someone to commit something he does not
want to do, a psychological violence. People
normalize this cruel act; this can be a
problem, because young people do not have
any point of reference between what it is
good or bad. We notice that the young boy
was scared after this act, and he felt guilty
by seeing the young girl. This resentment is
important, because it reflects an unease of the
young boy. After many years, he left his little
rural community and went to town, where he forgot the rape as time went.

The way to find forgiveness is often hard, and the way for Mr. Rebombo was
not easy.

The first step was to learn what respect and love are; he learnt it thanks to a
religious group. But he had forgotten the rape, and then worked for an NGO
and was in contact with many women who had lived the same situation as his
old victim. He decided to go back to his rural community in order to find the
woman he had raped. He found her and asked for forgiveness. He realized that
people must be treated with respect. The woman told him that she was raped
twice since the first sexual assault; this fact shows us that sexual violence is a
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true and deep problem in South Africa. Dumisami clearly said that machismo
feelings and beliefs coupled with patriarchal processes and tendencies. The
education is a key element of a society, and the narrator insists on this fact;
young South Africans are rising in the wrong way.

After thirty-four years, Dumisami Rebombo made the effort to seeking

forgiveness in his terrible past act. The woman has been raped several times by
different men, and this shows us that the situation in South Africa is very hard.
One hundred forty seven women are raped each day in South Africa. The
conviction rate for rape remains low, 7% on average. A third of the estimated
number of rapes was reported in 2003. Dumisami Rebombo is now an activist
who fights against sexual assault on women, and even if his act is not erased, he
will try to change mentality through the country.
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c - Further the sexual violence.

We have just seen the case of rape for girls, but another kind of rape
proliferating in South Arica. We will see in this part the reason of the rape rate
in South Africa, which is a big violence; often violence does not come only from
the assaulter.

Article 4 - “The virgin cleansing myth : cases of child rape are

not exotic.”

This document is a press article published in the Lancet, a Britain health

review, on February the 23rd of 2002. It refutes the Graeme Pitcher and Douglas
Bowley’s article. Indeed, they said that child rape fact is increasing due to the
myth of being cured from HIV by doing it. This article reflects that in South
Africa, local healers and magical remedies could influence people on their
violence. Even if this article is refuted, we can infer that some people thought
that they would be cure by doing it. This text is based on many scientific
studies, which give strength to the arguments. We notice that many arguments
are against the theory of the local myth. We will compare facts and studies in
order to explain the reason of the high rate of rape in South Africa. This
document resumes many causes that we have already seen in other articles,
but there is another dimension that we didn’t have: the scientific point of view.
We shall separate the argument in three parts which will be the three parts of
our commentary. Firstly, social context, then the historical facts, and to finish
we will discuss about solutions the author gives at the end of his discussion.

In the very first

line of the text,
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the author says that “the cases reported in which this myth was a motivating
factor for child rape […] is infrequent”, infrequent, but not non-existent. Dr.
Luke Lamprecht said that the only case was a man who asked the mother to
have sex with her daughter, in exchange for money. This testimony gives
strength to our last articles; the rape source comes from the family and poverty
is an important factor. The poverty as a source of the growth of violence and
sexual assault is resumed in the sixth paragraph.

Gang-initiation rituals, called “jackrolling”1 are another factor which is linked

to the social pressure. Definitely, people are sidelined if they refuse to conform
to some stupid rules. One thousand five hundred male schoolchildren,
interviewed2 in the Soweto Township, think that gang-rape is fun, according to a
recent survey3. On March 2008, Jessica Foord was walking her dog out with her
father, and then five men confronted them with knives and guns. They said that
they were forced to rape the girl, to enter in the gang. The protestation on the
picture 11th is against rape, and in favor of death sentence, for people who
commit sexual assault. The Education as we already known is an important
factor. Evidently, people are conditioned to some way of thinking from an early

1,2,3
According to this web article http://digitaljournal.com/article/264956
2
3
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age. “Culture of male sexual entitlement” and “sex inequalities” is proved facts
and contributes to this behavior. Families and communities are in disruption, as
the author said. One point is raised; only five rapes have been solved in a two
months period. This is important, and we will see it in our last part. As we have
seen in the article of the testimony of Dumisami Rebombo, the journalist said
that men have to stop to see the rape as a good punition.

The author has pointed out many social causes to violence, causes that we
have already seen in precedent articles. Now we are going to see other causes
to violence.

In the third paragraph, the HIV transmission to young people is said to be

low. This data explains that people don’t rape because of the myth, but another
one is at its origin: the historical and social facts. The next dispute is important.
Indeed, people have a feeling of a growth of child rape, but it is not the reality.
It is because press mediatizing recent events but the rate hasn’t changed since
the last five years. It also said in the text that people who rape did not know
they were seropositive, so the myth cannot be a source of this phenomenon.
However,
this
argument
can be

discussed. Indeed, this phenomenon, having sex with virgin people will cure
from HIV or AIDS, is found in other countries, as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
The history of sanctions to rape is contributing to the high rate of it. Indeed,
people will continue raping if no radical and exemplary sanctions are taken. This
sentence can be cited: “Many people in South Africa have been extremely
brutalized by the political violence in the country’s past”. This is clearly a major
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historical fact which contributed to the rising of violence. Indeed, as we know,

South Africa has a culture full of violence because of its history.

By joining the problem of infant rape and the problem of older rape, the
author’s intentions were to explain that government won’t be able to fight
against one, without fighting with the other.

South Africa must ameliorate many things to fight against this wound.
Indeed, the population still suffering because of many facts, and a society, as
violent as South Africa, have to be more prevented from any kind of violence,
and to force people to figure it out that one act can be violent, and not good.
This is a colossal work to change or integrate new things in social morals, but it
is the duty of the Government to act. Few solutions are presented by the
journalist. He wants that the population integrate first, the deep meaning of the
rape. Because they will continue to do it if they do not know what this act is,
and what it is implied. The problem of funds is real. Indeed, police cannot act
efficiently if they don’t have the material to. The medical support is poor for the
victim of sexual assault, and this is why police take time to solve these affairs. In
2008, a big campaign has been started in South Africa. Millions of SMS has been
daily sent to South African, to invite them to test for HIV.

To conclude we can say that this article is very pertinent, because it resumes
all the factors we have already seen, and introduces a new one: the local
beliefs. It brings to our dossier this scientific point of view which was missing.
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Conclusion
As we can see through these articles, violence is the daily lives of people.
It has many faces and many sources. Education, social pressures, history and
poverty, are part of them. We notice that violence is multiple in this society,
and can be show in many different ways. For this dossier, I have favored a
presentation of the principal wounds of the South African society, with two
actual big problems: xenophobia and rape. The figure of rape is over 494,000 a
year. This means that on average, approximately one thousand three hundred
women can be expected to be raped a day in South Africa4; and Xenophobia
because of the recent events which choked the world by its incredible violence.
However, some people are acting to lead South Africa to a better ideal. Even if
the country and the mentality will not change suddenly, they will change
because of the volunteerism of some principal actors. These actors can be local
actors, as Government, activist people (as Jessica Foord and Dumisami
Rebombo), and foreign actors as some NGO and the pressure of UN.

The actual President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has already taken some
decisions to change the country, and to face to the major problem of the
society. Indeed, in accordance to a recent press release5 a world symposium will
take place under the theme of: “South Africa’s contribution to the fight against
Racism, Xenophobia and Other related intolerances.” The country has the will
to change its picture in the world. Issues are very important to South Africa, and
people must change radically their minds in order to do what a great figure has
said on May 10th, 1994, “The time for the healing of the wounds has come.”
Nelson Mandela.

4
Based on this report : http://www.rape.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=875
5
According to this article : http://southafrica.usembassy.gov/us-sa-rel_zuma-usa-1109_1.html
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Sources
Articles:
- Article 1 : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14094760
- Article 2 :
http://www.citypress.co.za/Opinions/Editorials/Crime-not-only-on-our-doorstep-its-i
nside-20110910
- Article 3: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8115219.stm
- Article 4 :
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2802%2907794-2/
fulltext

Pictures:
- Picture 1 : http://www.southafricaweb.co.za/page/south-african-government
- Picture 2 : http://piappies.blogspot.com/2010/06/unity-in-diversity-italy.html
- Picture 3 : http://africasacountry.com/2010/03/21/sharpeville-now/
- Picture 4 :
http://www.geo.fr/environnement/actualite-durable/opa-des-pays-emergents-sur-les
-terres-agricoles-22960
- Picture 5 : http://autremedia.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html
- Picture 6 :
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/xenophobia_in_south_africa.html
- Picture 7 :
http://www.france24.com/fr/20080522-etrangers-fuient-lafrique-sud-afrique-sud
- Picture 8  and 9 : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8115219.stm
- Picture 10 :
http://www.chicsavvytravels.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Gesine-South-Africa
-Poverty-11.jpg
- Picture 11 :
http://info.france2.fr/dossiers/monde/le-sida-fl233au-qui-mine-la-soci233t233-sud-a
fricaine-63584399.html
- Picture 12 :
http://www.chicsavvytravels.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Gesine-South-Africa
-Poverty-11.jpg
- Picture 13 :
http://news.icm.ac.uk/business/mobile-technology-tackles-aids-in-south-africa/704/
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