GBV activists gather ahead of Krugersdorp court case

Gender-based violence activists and several political parties have gathered outside the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s court west of Johannesburg on Monday morning, ahead of the appearance of more than 80 suspects who were arrested over the weekend.

Many of them were arrested on allegations of illegal mining, possession of explosives, stolen goods, illegal firearms and ammunition as well as contravention of the Immigration Act.

Police say some of them may be linked to the gang rape of eight women, who were part of a production crew, shooting a music video.

The women were working on site when the attack took place on Thursday near a mine dump in Krugersdorp.

According to police, the gun-wielding attacker’s gang raped the women and robbed them of their belongings.

VIDEO: SABC’s Hasina Gori reports from outside the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court:

‘Holistic view’

The Commission for Gender Equality says there should be a holistic view into social factors that could have contributed to eight young women being gang raped.

The Commission’s Advocate Nthabiseng Sepanya says high unemployment among the youth makes them vulnerable.

“We also need to look at issues of unemployment how did these young girls actually get called by somebody that they had not known before who promised them R300 to do a music video and they were up for it. That for me shows the level of desperation and limited opportunities out there. Why do we have our young girls in South Africa so desperate.”

Chemical castration

Human Rights activist Petros Majola says he supports chemical castration as punishment for rapists.

The proposal was made by the ANC’s social transformation sub-committee at the party’s policy conference after the idea was rejected at the last policy conference in 2017.

National Executive Committee member Lindiwe Sisulu, who chaired the commission, told a media briefing on Saturday night that the proposal had been revived by female delegates partially as a response to the series of horrific attacks on women over the days leading to the conference.

Majola says that chemical castration should be implemented on condition that a thorough investigation into the matter is done.

“We need to check if all these things will be done to the correct targets. Remember in South Africa, we still have a challenge with investigations where wrong people would be arrested, prosecuted and convicted, but after a number of years, they will be released for wrongful arrest. So, we need to make sure that whatever we want to do, we tighten our investigation system so that we don’t castrate the wrong person.”

ANC Women’s League proposes chemical castration as a punishment for rapists: