Anene Booysen, a 17-year-old girl
in a town in the Western Cape was gang raped and murdered. She was found close
to her house after leaving a bar on a Friday evening. After being gang raped
she was able to identify one of her rapists before she died. One of her
attackers was a friend of her brothers whom he was very close to. As of now,
three men have been arrested and are due to appear in court.
Many mourners
came to her funeral and hundreds of people have marched to protest their
frustration with the growing number of sex crimes. South Africa has the highest
number of reported rapes a year of any Interpol member country. In 2011/2012
there were over 64,500 cases reported and within those cases, only 12% end in
conviction which has led to the outrage of many who live in South Africa
including The Women’s League of the ruling African National congress, President
Jacob Zuma, and The National Union of metalworkers of South Africa. President
Zuma has expressed his anger towards the situation by suggesting the harshest
possible sentence for the killers.
This
brutal rape and murder is not the first that has occurred in South Africa and
if proper actions are not taken it will not be the last. There needs to be a
stronger sentence for rapists to begin sending out a message that these brutal
crimes against women have to end. Women need the support of not only other
women but men also. They need support from law makers and a greater awareness should
be implemented to begin to lessen and hopefully eliminate these types of
crimes. It is sad that it takes a number of cases like Anene’s to occur before people
begin to not just notice the severity of rape but to begin to take action
against it. I would like to see what laws are going to be put into practice and
what preventative methods if any will be implemented to begin to lessen these
types of crimes.
http://allafrica.com/stories/
Ashley Lumsden
2/16/12 9:53 AM
http://allafrica.com/stories/
Ashley Lumsden
2/16/12 9:53 AM
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