Most recent figures from the National Victims of Crime Survey and referred to by the Monitoring and Analysis Unit of the Secretariat for Safety and Security, indicate that only one in 2 or only half of rapes that occur are reported. This is a tragedy. It is unacceptable and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development takes this matter very seriously. Violence against children, men and women is a reality which too many South Africans experience. Sexual violence against children, women and men is a horrifying reality which too many South Africans experience and too few report to the authorities within the criminal justice system.
Rape is an infringement of our individual human rights and it is a violation of our dignity.
To illustrate this point, we need only remind ourselves how rape has been used as an instrument of war in Eastern Europe and in Central Africa. We, the international community, watched aghast as these organised programmes of rape disrupted whole communities and shattered families with devastating effect. In its response to the unacceptably high levels of violence and especially sexual violence, Government has introduced several measures which seek to deal effectively with rape once it has occurred and to provide bail and sentencing frameworks which have a deterrent effect on the occurrence and incidence of crime. Furthermore, the Act insists that when any person charged with the commission of a serious crime such as murder, rape or robbery with aggravating circumstances, the court must order that the accused be detained in custody unless the accused produces evidence which satisfies the court that exceptional circumstances exist which in the interest of justice, permits his or her release. On the issue of sentencing, the court must impose minimum sentences for serious offences unless it is satisfied that substantial and compelling circumstances exist which justify the imposition of a lesser sentence.