Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu at the women's summit in Johannesburg on 5 November 2020. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s call for rapists to be chemically castrated is political grandstanding as she jockeys for position ahead of the ANC’s December elective conference, experts say.
Her headline-grabbing statement this week has been regarded by experts and activists as “not well informed” and a clear indication of “political opportunism”.
According to Sisulu – wearing her hat as chair of the ANC’s subcommittee on social transformation – lowering the levels of male hormones or androgens would assist in dealing with endemic abuse of women and children.
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However, activist and researcher Lisa Vetten told The Citizen that government had the responsibility of fixing what was currently not working in the justice system and society before looking for new ways to punish offenders.
“It’s really alarming that a minister, who is in a government with a national strategic plan that emphasises the role of gender inequality, the way children are seeing the power relations in relation to adults [and] gender language, can honestly come up with a solution like chemical castration,” she said.
“This seems to suggest the problem of rape is just one of excess hormones, but has nothing to do with society; nothing to do with power relations. It’s just a problem of too much testosterone.”
She said based on research, at least 50% to 60% of reported rapes resulted in arrests and “overall again, depending on which province you’re in, on average, about seven percent of reported rapes result in a conviction”, which leads to a tiny percentage of cases being eligible for chemical castration.
“If you look at the research done internationally, it doesn’t necessarily suggest this works, for a simple reason it doesn’t necessarily stop sexual activity in everybody who is castrated chemically,” she said.
“It doesn’t mean men can’t get erections or won’t have sexual feelings. So it’s one very big flaw. “It really doesn’t always work in the way it’s assumed.”
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Speaking during a webinar on Tuesday, Sisulu quoted a recent report indicating South Africa had the highest rate of child pregnancies in the world, and described the situation as “horrific”.
“We cannot have this kind of scourge on our children growing up in our society. It speaks to statutory rape,” Sisulu said.
“Impregnating children and human trafficking are so contrary to the Freedom Charter, there is a need to protect our people from this.”
Vetten said the National Prosecuting Authority’s annual reports for the last 10 years, from 2010-11 to 2020-21, showed a steady decline in the number of cases being put down for trial, so the number of cases resulting in a conviction were also decreasing.
If convictions went up, said Vetten, it would give survivors a greater sense of justice.
“If they were to focus on what’s wrong in the police – they can’t arrest perpetrators and that’s what’s wrong. In the prosecuting authority, they are becoming increasingly less able to prosecute and convict,” Vetten said.
Ngaa Murombedzi, spokesperson for anti-child abuse organisation Women and Men Against Child Abuse, said South Africa upheld “non-derogable rights, including the right to life and the right to not be tortured”, which formed the basis of the abolishment of the death penalty.
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“In that regard, the minister’s call is a violation of provisions of the Bill of Rights as per the constitution,” she said.
“However, the balance of infringing upon a perpetrator’s rights and observing the victim’s rights is something our courts still battle with. In that regard, as civil society organisations we often find the justice system fails our victims.”
Political analyst Dr Levy Ndou said it was not a matter of politicising, but just women in the country addressing a matter of great concern, saying enough is enough against the leniency of SA’s justice system and having harsher measures.
“GBV [gender-based violence] is a challenge in South Africa. You are going to get many, many views on how it has to be dealt,” he said.
“And because some people might feel they have had enough they would then want measures to punish; to be a bit harsher than the measures we currently have.”
– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za
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