sexual abuse in south africa

There have been several constitutional laws drafted that support women and on their fight against sexual violence. The apartheid regime did not have particular domestic violence bylaws within the constitution because women played primarily the nurturer role and were not involved in politics. Two of the oldest sexual violence laws initiated by the South African government were the: Women’s charter and Aims in 1954 and the 1957 common law rape. Amien argued that although these laws were part of the South African government, unfortunately, women were not aware of the existence of the laws . Due to racial segregation, black South Africans seldom trusted the authorities; therefore African women or White/Indian women rarely reported cases of sexual abuse. The Prevention of Family Violence Act was implemented in 1993 and it mainly addressed issues of domestic violence. The Prevention of Family Violence Act (PFVA) was the first legislation to address domestic violence on a national level. The Prevention of Family Violence Act had a lot of shortcomings because it did not include other forms of abuse women were facing and it lacked a legal definition of domestic violence and contained vague definition of family violence . Amien also debated that PFVA offered a narrow and insufficient definition and had clearly proved ineffective . Although the South African government was finally addressing domestic violence as a national issue, women were still afraid to report their cases without the approval of their husbands; therefore reports of violence abuse against women remained low. Under the new South African government, ANC passed the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) in 1998 and DVA was developed to overcome the shortcomings of the PFVA 1993 Act. The...

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...thorities need proper training on how to deal with cases of sexual abuse. In an interview conducted by Myakayaka-Manzini, a victim of sexual abuse said,

“We are the envy of the world with our constitution and bill rights, but the justice system is non-existent. My experience as a victim is that the perpetrator has more rights and can easily play the system.”

It is unfortunate to know that laws in the South African constitution regarding women’s rights are not being enforced and perpetrators can easily manipulate these laws to their liking. Retaliation from perpetrators leaves victims and witnesses more vulnerable because they have to live in the same communities as their perpetrators. This chapter will briefly cover three components of abuse that are aided due to negligence from South African government to address issues of sexual violence against women.