April 19, 2012 -- Updated 2152 GMT (0552 HKT)
S. Africa rape case outrages community
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Youths aged 14 to 20 are arrested over a cell phone video showing a rape
- A newspaper got hold of the video and handed it to police
- A government minister says the case will be a priority
- Tens of thousands of women are raped in South Africa every year
The cellphone video is
said to have gone viral among school kids in the township south of
Johannesburg, and the term #rapevideo was trending on Twitter in South
Africa on Wednesday.
The Daily Sun, a local
tabloid, reports that it alerted the police after a concerned mother
whose daughter was watching the video handed it over to the paper on
Tuesday.
"The mother of a teenage
girl saw the horrifying pictures and confiscated her daughter's phone. A
work colleague of the woman said they recognized some of the boys and
advised her to take the video to Daily Sun," the newspaper reported.
The suspects, aged
between 14 and 20, were arrested Tuesday morning and charged with
kidnapping and rape, police spokesperson Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela
said.
"The video is very bad. The men can be clearly identified as they take turns raping and filming her," she told CNN.
The girl's mother reported her missing on March 21, Makhubela said.
Media reports suggest the police initially failed to open a missing persons case but that they have since done so.
Police suspect the girl was kidnapped and turned into a sex slave.
A local radio station got hold of the video and has been getting requests to post it.
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On Twitter, Eyewitness News editor Katy Katopodis said the station would never do that.
"To those asking for the
#rapevideo link that #EWN reported on today. Stop! Not happening! We'd
never put it on our site. Illegal & wrong," she tweeted.
The distribution of pornographic material is illegal in South Africa.
The station reports that the gang of men promised the girl 25 cents for her silence.
"The girl can be heard
pleading with the boys to stop. They crudely jest and crassly spur one
another on," journalist Mandy Weiner reported.
NGOs estimate a woman is raped every 26 seconds in the country.
According to the latest
police statistics more than 60,000 cases of sexual assault were reported
in the year to March 2011, down from 70,000 in 2008.
A popular radio talk
show host broke down Wednesday morning as she encouraged listeners to
come up with solutions to the problem.
Women's rights activist
Lisa Vetten says in the province of Gauteng, where Johannesburg is
located, one in every five rapes is a gang rape.
"Rape is a young man's
crime. It's a bit of a performance for them, showing off to each other
how macho they are. We need to teach our young men that you can be
masculine in ways that do not involve violence and degrading women," she
said.
The government is well aware that the problem needs urgent attention, experts say.
"We are not lacking in
terms of legal instruments to deal with this kind of thing. What we lack
are ways of making these instruments effective," said Nomboniso Gasa,
an expert on gender and culture.
The country has created a
ministry of women and children precisely to deal with violence against
women and other related matters.
Its minister Lulu Xingwana says this case will be be a high priority.
"I will speak to the
minister of police to ensure that this case is prioritized. Distributing
child porn is illegal in this country so the police must confiscate
this video," she said in a radio interview.
The newspaper that broke the story says they were the ones that informed the victim's mother.
The tearful woman reportedly said her daughter had been a victim of rape since the age of 12.
"People took advantage of her illness and because my family is poor," the Sun quoted her as saying.
Police did not confirm her mental ability or allegations she had been raped before.
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