Sex abuse in SA: When protectors become predators

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]The devastating reality of sexual abuse is confronting South Africans once again. A man who was revered as both a church and community leader is now accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in his home in Sutoto, Johannesburg.

[00:00:15]>> Especially the kids, they would come and use his Wi-Fi and some of the members would come and ask to cook there. So I stayed with these kids actually even help them to do their homeworks. So So it was no one saw this coming. The widely publicized case is just one of many involving sexual violence and it's forcing South Africans to ask hard questions. How do communities reconcile the betrayal of trust when leaders become predators?

[00:00:46]>> Um I don't think the government is doing enough to protect the children and the female girls who are being raped outside. And I'm not sure if there's anything they can do, but I just feel like what they're doing is not enough.

[00:00:58]Welcome to the flip side. For years, many sexual perpetrators have gotten away scot-free. Victims have had their dignity stripped while the justice system fails them. In South Africa, many are tired of the status quo.

[00:01:14]>> As women in South Africa, we've got nowhere to go. Our government has showed us good. They failed us time and time and again. The current government has got no strategies. They've got no nothing. They've got they don't know how to bring solutions to this country. So where there's no leadership in the country, the women shall rise and the women shall make decisions about this country.

[00:01:39]>> But does it all really lie in the hands of the government?

[00:01:42]>> Recently what we have experienced in South Africa is alarming. Has the government failed? No. Has society failed? No. Has the government done well? No. Has society also done well to upkeep to to ensure that this uh this does not persist? No. So there are failures on both divides where you have the government. The government can't really do much except putting institutions in place and ensuring that there is adequate legislation and through those legislations you can have complaint mechanisms or mechanisms through which perpetrators can be brought to account. I think that um the continued rape and sexual violence that um women experience in South Africa is a complex issue of um historical in nature. When you think of how black women's bodies have always been used um to as objects and as um projections of violence on. So, it's historical, but it's also um at a family level, at a community level, and at a macro government level. How do we bring sexual violence perpetrators to account for their actions?

[00:02:58]>> You know, some people advocate for corporate for uh different measures of capital punishment and uh for me that is too extreme from a human rights perspective. But you could tell that based on our foundation, our principles of human rights on Ubuntu, it is honestly not possible. It is simply a fact that there is lack of sufficient, you know, u moral consciousness.

[00:03:27]I think you could answer you can also relate this to domestic violence against women. It is just a matter of continuous positive education.

[00:03:38]continuous education in various forms in all the different sectors where people gather.

[00:03:45]>> What is clear is that the issue of sexual abuse is more than a crime story.

[00:03:49]It is a multi-layered issue of power, silence, and the very urgent demand for accountability. And that is the flip side.