|
Baby Rape
| Date: |
04 February 2002 12:00 |
| Show: | Carte Blanche |
Baby Tshepang is just starting to take her first steps. A few weeks ago she celebrated her first birthday. She is the baby who made international headlines in October last year when it was reported that she'd been brutally gang raped and sodomised - allegedly by a group of six drunk men.
It was in the small RDP home just outside Upington that Baby Tshepang's 16-year-old mother left her alone late on a Friday night. When her grandmother arrived a few hours later, she discovered her granddaughter lying on a bed, covered in blood. She immediately alerted the police, and six men were rounded up.
Justice supposedly came swiftly when they were taken into custody and were charged with raping and sodomising the baby. There was a nation-wide sense of relief that this crime against someone so helpless and innocent would not go unpunished.
Attorney Albert van Zyl represented the six men.
'I saw photos. It is shocking, absolutely horrible thing that happened. It wasn't even as if you were looking at a human being, actually, it was terrible,' he says.
Then, on January 17, all charges were dropped when DNA tests proved they were not guilty. But the massive media exposure has brought the issue of child rape into the open, and mobilised the country into action.
Baby rape has been around in South Africa for many years - long before Baby Tshepang hit the headlines both locally and internationally.
Luke Lamprecht is on the frontline of the fight against child abuse. He manages the forensic unit called the Teddy Bear clinic and works with traumatised children on a daily basis.
'The positive side of it is that we have a society that is now looking at the fact that our children are being raped, tortured, molested ... the other side of it is that it is for sad that it's only that sort of case that people choose to pay attention to, that very severe sort of case,' he says.
A child is abused every eight minutes in South Africa. A rape, or an attempted rape occurs every 25 minutes, and every year there are about 7 000 reported cases of child rape or attempted rape - and these numbers are on the rise.
'We've definitely seen an increase in the amount of children. In general, the amount of cases is going up. What I can say is the nature of the abuse is changing. We've got more young offenders, the offences are more brutal, there's a much more violent element to them,' says Luke.
The vagina of a five-month-old baby is so small that an adult's little finger is all that can fit inside. Raping a baby can result in the vagina being torn through to the rectum.
'When we talk about rape we need to be very clear what we're talking about. It's a legal definition, which means the penetration of the vagina via a penis. Now we do see little kids who have been penetrated, but it's more likely that it was a finger etc, so the level of physical wound isn't what we are seeing in the Baby Tshepang case,' says Luke.
When Baby Tshepang was discovered, she was rushed to intensive trauma. Her mother and grandmother stayed close by her side, haunted by that one careless night of neglect. She was later transferred to a children's hospital in Cape Town, where she underwent extensive reconstructive surgery. Fortunately, doctors were able to save her uterus.
'She came to us about a month ago with significant injuries. Those injuries were identified here with special investigations. They have all been repaired,' said Professor Heinz Rode.
But the question remains why anyone would want to attack and inflict such damage on an innocent child.
'It is probably more a thought process that arouses a person, rather than the child. And you could look at motives like revenge - if you want to hurt society, who do you attack first? You attack its weakest. If you want to hurt women, who do you attack? You attack their babies,' says Luke.
South Africa has emerged from a period of history that saw its population brutalised from an unjust political system. This conflict left a legacy of anger and national trauma that cheapened the value of human life.
'The revenge is almost a war-like rape mentality. The worst thing that we can do to our society is hurt our infants. They could quite easily rape a woman, but they chose to rape a baby. They could rape an older child, but they rape a baby. What are they saying to us?'
Despite being shocked by the police photos of Baby Tshepang's injuries, Albert had doubt about the guilt of the men who had been arrested for the rape.
'It didn't make sense - six people raping a baby. Just common sense told me that 'How could she survive if it was six?'' says Albert.
Even though other lawyers turned down the case, he was prepared to defend the men.
'I still think that everybody in this country of ours has the right to be, first of all, represented by someone and, of course, you are in this country innocent until proven guilty,' he says.
Because Baby Tshepang's rape was supported so quickly, the police obtained a perfect specimen of DNA, which Albert explained to the accused.
'If they have your DNA, you are in trouble. If you even touched that little baby, you are in trouble - and number one to number six said, 'Please, take our DNA, take the hair, take the nail clippings ... we've got nothing to hide',' he says.
Joppie Freeman was one of the men arrested in the early hours of the morning following the rape. He told the police that he knew nothing of the rape, that he'd spent the entire night with his wife.
'I myself knew, and God knew, I was innocent. I told the police, but the investigating officer would not believe me. On the same night I gave my wife a love bite on the neck. My wife also showed the officer the love bite, but the officer did not believe her. I had a glass of cooldrink in my hand and they shoved me around on the stoep and my two small children were crying,' he says.
A neighbour of Joppie's, Jan Minies, who lives across the road from Baby Tshepang, also had an alibi for that night.
'I was over there in Lewesgevilkop, on the other side of the location, with my girlfriend Griet. The two of us were together that night. We had a few drinks and then I came home - only later I heard about the baby being raped. The baby had already gone to hospital by then,' he says.
Despite proclaiming their innocence, the six became a focus for the outrage and disgust of the nation. The public wanted justice, and needed a conviction to bring closure to the horror. In the minds of many, they were as good as guilty, and in jail, they started paying the price for being branded baby rapists.
'The police treated us badly, they were dirty with us. Once the thieves from here said we were baby rapists, then they said we were ... I can speak plainly ... I can't even say it, it's to ugly. They called us baby rapists. One policeman made us stand in a line, and a black policeman gave each one of us a klap,' says Joffie.
When we asked why they were hitting us, they said we were talking 'kak', that we rape little children, that we are baby rapists' says Jan.
'The only thing that helped us was to get down on our knees and pray that God would use the DNA tests to prove our innocence,' says Joffie.
Despite promises to fast track the DNA tests, it took three months until it was proved that the wrong men had been arrested. According to Albert, the results of the tests were available in early December - so why were the men not released then?
'I think it was pressure - pressure from the community and pressure from officials, the media. They had to pay for the crime - it's such a high-profile case. They painted themselves into a corner,' says Albert.
The intense media scrutiny catapulted the small community into the spotlight. Inaccurate facts took on a life of their own. Many people had the idea that the small house where Baby Tshepang lived was a shebeen, where all six men were gathered together, drunk on that night.
'I was not drunk. I was not even in the company of those men. I don't walk with them, I don't drink with them,' says Joffie.
It was reported that the men were in an adjoining room, but it seems that this wasn't true.
'No. Actually, at one time or the other during that day, they went via the house or they went to greet somebody, and that's why they were picked up in the end. They were connected that way to the house. Actually, they weren't on the premises,' says Albert.
Even Minister Steve Tshwete was repeating information, just two weeks ago, on national television: 'The men were arrested purely on the basis of circumstantial evidence - evidence to the fact that they were found with the baby, and there was blood and that indicated their involvement.'
'When you speak to people on the street, they're already found guilty because that was the feeling that you got when you opened the papers - that they were really guilty,' says Albert.
'Child abuse knows no boundaries. It happens to billionaires, it happens to people who haven't got money to buy tomorrow's bread, it happens to black, white, pink, purple people,' says Luke.
'I think it's terrible, because it could also happen to my children. When I was in jail, every morning and evening I would stay on my knees to ask God to protect my wife and children, because it could also happen to them,' says Joffie.
'Very often we try and say, 'It happens to those kind of people' to make ourselves feel safe, and give answers for questions we feel we need answers for, because in the back of our minds we are saying to ourselves, 'We can't explain this, we really can't, we haven't done enough work yet',' says Luke.
The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but for the six falsely accused men, ultimately the system did work.
'They way you can get to justice is to get a chance of justice, and in their case, without a doubt, it worked. The DNA proved that they were totally excluded, and for them justice worked,' says Albert.
Even though Joffie has been set free, he's lost his job and the stigma of being accused of being charged with rape will always stay with him.
'What I ultimately want is my salary and to clear my name. Enough money so my family - my wife and I - can move away from this community. Move somewhere else so we can build a new future,' he says.
Baby Tshepang's recovery is only just beginning. While she is learning to walk, her attacker is still walking free.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
|