Rape and HIV/AIDS

South Africa's twin epidemic

" South Africa has two epidemics, one of HIV and the other one of sexual violence, " says Marlise Richter, a researcher at the Aids Law Projec (ALP) at the university of Witwatersrand. " And the two are closely linked, " she adds.

According to the most recent available statistics from the South African Police Servise, 52,733 cases of rape were reported in 2003/2004 and this slightly increased in 2005/2006 to 54,926., reafirming South Africa's unenviable claim of being the rape capital of the world. South Africa also has an adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 20 percent , giving it another unenviable title, that of the country with the highest number of HIV infected people. The two figure are not coincidental argues Richter. She says rape and HIV/AIDS are closely linked and the linkage happens at the level of gender.

However high the number of rape cases are in South Africa, my independent research with perpetrators of rape awaiting trial at the Sun City prison (Jahannesburg Prison) indicates that some of the reported cases were false cases. This is a situation whereby some women consent to sex and later, due to disagreement with their partners, the women go and report that they have been raped. In some incidences, this interviewees claimed that their girlfriends, wives or simply put, long term partners report them for rape for simple financial reasons in cases where the two have financial disputes over property and othe material things. Although this responses may be biased, they cannot be dismissed and to some extent, they complicate statistics that solely rely on cases that have been reported to the police and do not indicate statistics of actual convitions depending on whether the perpetrators were found guilty or not in a court of law. This is where the problem is.

Nevertheless, the mechanics of rape , characterised as it is by force, violence and trauma, combined with the biology of HIV transmission through semen and blood, create an ideal opportunity to spread HIV infection. '" From a medical perspective, rape is characterised by bleeding and considering the fact that there is high HIV prevalence in South Africa, it is only logical that those who are raped are at high risk of contracting HIV," says Richter.

Although understanding the mode of infectious transmission may be relatively straightfoward, explaining South Africa's alarming rape statistics is much more complicated. Sadiyya Haffejee, a researcher with the Gender Unit at the Centre for the Studdy of Violence and Reconciliation, says the widespread prevalence of rape is a legacy of the culture of violence that sustained arpatheid and a product of the current pace of rapid and ongoing social transformation. " South Africa is traditionally a male dominated and patriarchal society and research suggest that rape is more prevalent in such societies. A culture of violence has also dominated South Africa for years and the current level of criminal and political violence, rooted in arpatheid and the political struggle to overthrow it , has left many with a sense of powerlesness."

This is the sense of powerlessness among men as South Africa transforms into a democratic society that is rapidly redefining traditional gender roles, especialy, relationships. It is manifetsed in extreme examples of antisocial behaviour, least of all rape. According to Dr Hellen Jones, a senior lecturer in criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, " rape is not a gender neutral activity. People do not rape, men rape. Rape is also about power and control, not about sex." Jones also argues that the many 'rape myths' widely propagated in South Africa, such as the belief that men rape because they cannot control their sexual lust and that women enjoy being raped, contribute to the sense of social permissiveness around rape.

While changing the social conditions that underlies South Africa's horrific rape statistics and the consequent implications for spreading HIV/AIDS remains a long term and profoundly complex challenge, anti rape and HIV/AIDS activists are persuing a number of campaigns to effect immediate changes to adress the twin epidemics of rape and HIV/AIDS, including legal responces, educational campaigns, and more rigorous application of health policies.

" The Department of Health has very limited guidelines on rape and that is why we at the Aids Law Project are pushing for an extensive guideline. The current guideline for instance does not deal with the relationship between violence againist women and the risk of HIV transmission, "says Richter. The ALP is also pushing for better implementation of existing health policies that entitle women to post exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV transmission following a rape. The ALP also publishes a handbook that provide critical legal and medical information to rape survivors to prevent HIV transmission.