When the rapist's aunt tried to settle the matter in the traditional way by offering two cows to the victim's mother, it was already too late to stop the women activists of Lusikisiki.
They had mobilized, and they were hunting for justice. They took to the streets with loudspeakers, placards and pamphlets. They went to the police station, the hospital, the courtrooms and the school.
They insisted on a police investigation, and they forced the police to bring in special rape kits to gather forensic evidence from the victim. They kept up the pressure in the courts.
It took almost two years, but the women won. On March 25, the rapist was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison -- the toughest prison sentence ever imposed for rape in this region.
South Africa's epidemic of rape, which has raged for decades with near impunity for the attackers, has finally triggered a revolt. Sexual assaults, often dismissed as a ritual of manhood, are no longer ignored so routinely. Women's groups and other activists are breaking the code of silence and insisting on police investigations and convictions.
With more than 50,000 rapes reported annually -- nearly 150 every day -- and many more cases that are never reported, South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. The incidence of rape in South Africa is the highest of any of Interpol's member states, yet only half of the rapes lead to arrests, and only 7 percent result in convictions.
In a recent survey, 28 percent of South African men admitted they had raped someone at least once in their lives. Almost three-quarters of them had committed their first rape before the age of 20.
The study, which surveyed a representative sample of men from 1,700 households in two South African provinces, concluded that sexual assault is linked to South Africa's strongly patriarchal society and is "deeply embedded in ideas about manhood."
The study shocked many people in this country and around the world, but it was no surprise to those who lived in Lusikisiki and similar towns across South Africa.
For years, the police here were taking these cases lightly, making little effort to punish the rapists, often accepting bribes and dropping cases before they went to court.
"Corruption is too high here," said Nombeko Gqamane, administrator of the Lusikisiki office of Treatment Action Campaign, an advocacy group on HIV/AIDS and other health issues that fought hard to force the police to prosecute the rapist.
"When we analyze why the police are dragging their legs on rape cases, it's often because someone gave them 1,000 rand (about $125)," she said. "Most of the dockets are lost. When we put pressure on them, they find the docket again."
Until TAC opened its office in Lusikisiki in 2003, many rape cases were routinely ignored by the police. "People were just paying with sheep or goats, thinking that they could just keep it within the community," Gqamane said. "We want to change this culture. We say to people, 'You have to go to the police with these cases'."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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