South Africa searches for solutions after teenage girl’s gang rape and murder

Death of Anene Booysen leads to controversial measures by police seeking to crack down on widespread sexual violence

One subject has dominated South Africa’s media agenda so far this month: rape. The case of 17-year-old Anene Booysen – gang-raped and murdered, her throat slit and body mutilated by a broken bottle – has concentrated minds on a deep-rooted culture of sexual violence. It has led to calls for public protests as seen in India and forced South Africans to confront the question: what can be done?

Tougher law enforcement has been one inevitable answer. The front page of South Africa’s Times newspaper on Wednesday reported that police in Limpopo province are forcing all rape suspects to undergo HIV testing, with those who test positive to be be charged with attempted murder as well as rape.

“This is going to give police more ammunition to fight the scourge of rape,” spokesman brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi told the paper. “From now on we will take every possible legal avenue to ensure heavier sentences, especially in cases where the suspect was aware of his HIV status.”

But the solution has proved contentious. While South Africa’s Sexual Offences Act allows police to ask a magistrate to order an HIV test of a rape suspect, the move by Limpopo police is yet to be tested in court.

Isaac Mangena, spokesman for the South African Human Rights Commission, said: “While we remain deeply concerned about the unacceptable increase of incidents of rape and gender-based violence that has gripped the country in recent days, we believe the police should be reminded of the fundamental rights afforded to all individuals in the constitution, including the presumption of innocence principle.

“We believe that the envisaged mandatory HIV testing of suspects by the police in Limpopo will not stand the test of the courts. The rights of both the victim and the accused persons must be protected and respected at all times.”

Cathi Albertyn, a law professor at Wits University, told the Times: “Technically speaking, the Sexual Offences Act allows the results of an HIV test to be used… as evidence… but proving attempted murder may be a step too far.”

Rachel Jewkes, acting director of the South African Medical Research Council, said four in five rapists are HIV-negative and questioned why the charge of attempted murder is required. “If a person is properly convicted of rape, the mandatory sentence is 15 years,” she told the paper.

South Africa’s progressive constitution enshrines gender rights and its parliament has one of the highest proportion of female MPs in the world. Yet the breathtaking scale of sexual violence – and the silence that often surrounds it – exposes the chasm between constitutional ideals and the harshness of daily life in townships and villages.

Some 56,272 rapes were recorded in 2010-11, an average of 154 a day and more than double India’s rate. A survey in Gauteng province found more than one in three men admitted rape. Many cases are known to go unreported and it estimated that only around one in 200 rapists will be convicted.

Political commentators have welcomed the sudden end to rape denialism and the growing willingness to confront the issue. Writing for the Daily Beast, Eusebius McKaiser, himself a rape victim when he was a boy, observed: “The newfound outrage over Booysen’s death might be connected to the global focus on a similar gang rape in India, which has enflamed that nation and set off calls for harsher sentences for rapists.

“It’s possible that the India case could have quietly touched the hearts and minds of South Africans more than they realised – and that Booysen’s tragic demise might herald South Africa’s own awakening on the issue. Whatever the reason, the country is now embarking, somewhat clumsily and haphazardly but with unprecedented frankness, on a journey of talking about an evil that has been ignored for too long.”

The two men charged with Booysen’s rape and murder appeared in court on Tuesday. The case was postponed until 26 February.