Only one in nine women raped in South Africa report the crime

Rebecca Harrison:

"Burn the bitch", yelled supporters of South Africa's former deputy president Jacob Zuma outside the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday, as the woman he is accused of raping prepared to testify.

Faced with these attitudes, it is little wonder that just one in nine women raped in South Africa report the crime, say activists.

The explosive trial of the man once tipped to succeed President Thabo Mbeki has thrown a spotlight on sexual violence in a country with one of the world's highest rates of rape.

Activists say the case illustrates a deep-seated misogyny in South Africa, where rape -- particularly when the accused is known to the victim -- is often dismissed as a private matter, and many accuse women of bringing violence upon themselves.

Some 55,000 rapes were reported in South Africa last year but since only one in nine women raped actually report the crime, according to activist group People Opposing Women Abuse, the figure is closer to 450,000, in a population of 45 million.

"We are talking about a nation of walking wounded," said Carrie Shelver, public awareness manager at POWA. "The scary thing is that people report rape by strangers, but there is a great reluctance when people know the person."

In graphic court testimony on Monday, an HIV-positive AIDS activist accused Zuma, a longtime family friend, of raping her without a condom in a case that could end his career.

Zuma, a popular figure, said he had consensual sex with the woman and denied it was rape.

Anti-rape campaigners said Zuma supporters have hurled abuse and lobbed objects at activists wearing T-shirts reading 'Against her will, against the law'.

"When you look at the intimidation here, you can understand why so few women who suffer such a gross humiliation report it," said Dumisani Rebombo, who works with men to fight sexual violence. "There is a tendency to blame the victim."

At the crux of the rape issue in South Africa is the widely held belief that forced sex with someone you know does not constitute rape. Activists say this is the main reason why most women do not report sexual violence.

A survey of 270,000 young South Africans from 2001-2004 showed 61 percent of boys and 62 percent of girls aged 10-14 years believed that forcing sex with someone you know did not count as sexual violence.

That fell to 52 and 54 percent respectively for boys and girls aged 15-19 years, according to the survey carried out by CIET, a Mexican institute that studies health issues.

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