I know you know all about the Rape Survivors’ Justice Campaign, because you’ve liked them on Facebook and you’re following them on Instagram and Twitter. Just to recap, it’s a project started to hold the government accountable to its promise of more sexual offences courts.

On Friday 25^th November, myself, three other students along with a couple of amazing Rape Crisis staff visited Parow Magistrates’ Court to get an insight into specialised Sexual Offences Courts. We’re here in Cape Town all the way from the University of York in England to study the advocacy model that Rape Crisis is developing.

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South Africa’s criminal justice system is confusing. Not because it is littered jargon about clauses and by-laws (any self-respecting Suits and The Good Wife fan can figure that out) but rather because of its vacillating treatment of those in pursuit of justice.

Roughly between 4% and 8% of reported sexual violence cases ends in conviction. This is not because perpetrators have Harvey Spectre-esque defence teams that ruthlessly and lawlessly fight for their client’s innocence. Instead, the system itself is letting survivors down.

However, with the case of the ‘Rhodes Memorial Rapist’, it seems that the Criminal Justice System seems to have undergone some kind of reincarnation. Mthunzi Hlomane was sentenced to 9 life sentences which effectively means he will be behind bars for a total of 108 years. It seems that in this life, the Criminal Justice System is capable of successfully delivering justice to survivors of sexual violence. The whole case was resolved before the end of the year, the punishment fits the crime, a bad man will be behind bars for the rest of his life and—as Judge Mushtak Parker said—this process will help the survivors find closure “sooner rather than later”. The National Prosecuting Authority was also available for comment saying that this sentence “confirms our resolve to prioritise crimes against women and children and sexual violence”. It all sounds great and doable and faith in our justice system can be restored. Long live the Criminal Justice System (for this life, anyway)!

Image Source: Pinterest

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Last week I had the pleasure of joining the WAR Campaign on their school tour. This tour involves visiting various schools around Cape Town where they speak to high school students about rape while dispelling myths and stereotypes present in South African culture. When I arrived at Hillsong Church last Monday I truly had no idea what to expect from the experience- I had never attended Hillsong Church before and had never even heard of the WAR Campaign until the week previous. My first impression was how large, modern, and beautiful the building was and also how young the members of the campaign were- I myself am 24 years old, but I was not expecting for them to be in their twenties as well. This sparked my interest. They all gave off this very cool, hip, down to earth vibe which I assumed would greatly benefit their campaign since I expected that the high school students would see them as people that they could either relate to or view as great examples of who they could one day become. We all shared introductions, collected the campaign posters, stickers, pamphlets and the sound system, and all then piled into the van to drive to the first school in Mitchells Plain.

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We love seeing so many people come forward at the end of the assemblies to speak up against rape. #warcampaigntour

A post shared by The WAR Campaign (@thewarcampaign) on Oct 17, 2016 at 12:01pm PDT

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I had decided to stay out of the debate on the Rape Crisis blog between “Fifty Shades of Feminism” and “Burlesque”, posts by the present and former directors of Rape Crisis. Many reasons: remembering being the “angry young feminist”, feeling caught between the older and younger generations of feminists, but most of all, affection for the personalities behind the blogs. I’ve seen Carol dancing with joy in the shepherd’s cottage she calls home, goats and flowers outside. I’ve asked her how the sam hill she keeps up her tireless international advocacy for raped and abused children without losing her mind. Her response is to crank up the music and dance some more.

And then there’s Kath, with whom I go back so far, the letters she wrote me when I went travelling (which I still have) were written by hand. It was a time of boyfriends and breakups and brothers and baked potatoes. Some of the people we loved in those long-gone years are dead now, so she’s become one of my memory-bank friends. And we have the tie of Rape Crisis too, an organisation I’ve orbited since the late 1980s. I’ve never been a member, but I’ve been a researcher and consultant for the organisation on and off since 2001.

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On this day, 40 years ago, students took a stand against a violent and unjust system. We salute the courageous youth who fought for change in the 1976 uprisings.

Despite the rights we enjoy now, we still have a long way to go in changing attitudes around rape. This Youth Day, we’d like to shine the spotlight on our Peer Educators fighting rape culture in their schools and larger communities.

Rape culture is rooted in myths and stereotypes that normalise and excuse rape. By challenging these myths, our Peer Educators grow into leaders and role models, while changing attitudes towards women.

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