A new report by the Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit at the University of Cape Town says that many judges fail to impose minimum mandatory sentences against rapists and use “flimsy excuses” to avoid handing down harsher sentences.
Legally, rapists should be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison when the victim is raped more than once or is younger than 16.
- Judge Jeremy Pickering sentenced a man to 15 years last year for raping his six-year-old daughter. The judge said the man acted “on the spur of the moment”.
-Judge AJ Visser sentenced Joseph Ntuli to eight years, with four years suspended, for raping a 14-year-old girl twice. In the 2003 sentencing, Judge Visser said the victim, “being the pretty girl she is, might have brought out the animal in the accused”.
-Judge Hendrick Musi sentenced a man to an effective 13 years for raping five girls under the age of 16. He said the rapist “intended no harm other than to satisfy his sexual lust”. [Sunday Times]
The Sunday Times published an editorial yesterday criticizing the judges for failing to deliver harsher sentence and for showing a lack of sensitivity toward the rape victim. Let’s not forget the examples cited also blame the victim.
In South Africa, it is estimated that at least 500000 women and children are forced every year to have unwanted sexual intercourse with cruel and sadistic men who treat them as objects to be abused and discarded. This places a terrible emotional burden on our nation.
NGOs estimate that one in two South African women is likely to be raped, and that 75% of rapes of women and children are gang rapes. Most rapes go unreported, and only 7% of reported rapes result in conviction.
So when the law says the minimum mandatory sentence for those who commit multiple rapes, or rape a minor, is life in jail unless there are compelling mitigating factors, we expect our judges to do their bit. [Sunday Times]
[...] hard hitting report released by the Gender Health and Justice Research Unit at the University of Cape Town and the [...]