South Africa: Rape survivors still feel marginalised

Every 17 seconds a woman is raped in South Africa. According to the South African Police Services’ 2006 rape statistics, close to 55 000 women reported being raped that year. But how many more rapes go unreported, and why? Put yourself in a rape survivor’s shoes just for a minute. After experiencing an extremely traumatic ordeal, what would you do? Would you go to the police station, seek medical attention or do nothing and hope to forget about it? Often, these are some of the questions that linger in the mind of a rape survivor. Every 17 seconds a woman is raped in South Africa. It is also estimated that 1 in 9 adult women report being raped.