Tags
rape, sexual violence, the star, ukuthwalaUkuthwala is fuelled by poverty, say gender activists
The Star
21 February 2014
When 32-year-old Mvumelani Jezile was sentenced to 22 years in prison this month for the abduction and rape of a 14-year-old girl under the guise of ukuthwala, the case was celebrated as a milestone in the fight against sexual violence.
But, say many familiar with the grinding poverty of the Eastern Cape and the path laid out for many girl children there, a conviction like this is just a small piece of a puzzle.
The deep-rooted causes of ukuthwala - and its effect on its victims - still cast a long shadow over the province.
While MP Pathekile Holomisa, a traditional leader and former president of Contralesa, says this case should not even be described as ukuthwala because of the victim's youth and the use of force in sex, Mikateko Joyce Maluleke, special adviser to the minister in the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, says that, increasingly, ukuthwala has been reduced to the abduction, forced marriage and rape of girls as young as 12 by men "old enough to be their grandfathers"...read the full article
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