In many ways it is easy for me to think that I am in charge of my own health. It is my body after all. If I want to be healthy then I can learn what it means to eat healthy foods and make an effort to eat those healthy foods. I can learn why […]
The Wynberg Project, described in Part 1 of this series, proved to be a success – the court maintained a conviction rate of up to 80 percent over a period of a year (1993). This meant that four in five cases that went to court resulted in a conviction – the perpetrator went to jail.[i]
INTRODUCTION We’re going to tell you a story that has four parts. It’s a complicated story, but we’re going to try to tell it in a simple way. It is a story where language and meanings change. The very definition of words and crimes change. But, the attitudes and norms of society don’t change very […]
I first became interested in the issue of sexual violence when learning about rape on United States university campuses. I wanted to better understand sexual violence on a global scale, and so I sought out a foreign organization working in this domain. Eventually, I found Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust! I saw that Rape Crisis […]
The Rape Survivors Justice Campaign (RSJC) and its coalition partners intend to hold government accountable for the promised roll out of specialised sexual offences courts. These courts are specialised in offering the right kind of support to rape survivors when they need it most, and it is this factor that we believe is key to […]
As discussed in our previous article, attrition of rape cases in South Africa is a matter of serious concern. The RAPSSA Report found that there were many different factors influencing the attrition of rape cases as they move through the criminal justice system. Some of these were due to the inefficiency and inconsistency of investigating […]
Crime is a systemic problem in South Africa and every year a huge number of cases are reported to the police. In 2017, for example, there were 49 660 sexual offences cases reported to the police in South Africa. But in how many of these cases does the offender actually go to jail? You would […]
On the 28 of March a group of would be writers gathered at the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education to attend the second in a series of workshops hosted by Rape Crisis in order to learn about writing on the topic of rape. The workshop was facilitated by Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust Director Kathleen […]
Each person copes with trauma in a different way, depending on their circumstances. We cannot tell you exactly how you will or should feel if you have been raped, but we can tell you what we have learnt from other rape survivors. By describing their feelings and coping mechanisms, we hope to offer you strength […]