Durban – More needed to be done to ensure that young boys did not grow up to be men who raped.
This was according to South African child rights activist Joan van Niekerk who had been speaking on the 42-year-old Bergville man charged with the alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl.
Van Niekerk said that this was another horrendous example of child exploitation, child rape and gender-based violence.
“What we really need is to be ensuring that we work on prevention rather than just response. How do we grow up our boys to be the kind of men who do not rape children or anybody else.”
According to police, the incident took place on July 24 at 3.40am at a farm in Bergville where a 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 41-year-old man.
“The suspect was arrested by Ladysmith Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit and appeared in Bergville Magistrate’s Court on July 26, 2022.”
Elsewhere, on Thursday the High Court of South Africa Polokwane Limpopo Division sentenced a 22-year-old, Thapelo Tonny Phasha, to 22 years direct imprisonment for three counts of rape.
Between April 2018 and May 2019 in Ga Mothapo, Phasha raped girls aged between 15 and 23.
The NPA welcomed the sentence, and spokesperson in that region Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi also applauded “the good work of advocate Sontaga Malefahlo and Sergeant Sello Morerwa for ensuring that justice was served in the community.”
Daily News