SOUTH AFRICA
Total Shutdown
The suicide of a 23-year-old South African woman after she was allegedly raped by a fellow student at the Rhodes University in Grahamstown has galvanized the country’s movement against sexual assault.
But there’s a long way to go before women will feel safe in what some have labeled “the rape capital of the world” according to the national statistical service of South Africa, CNN reported.
Buried in Johannesburg on Thursday, Khensani Maseko told university officials in July that she had been raped by another student in May. Her parents were informed and she returned home pending an investigation, while the accused was suspended. But a few days before Maseko was to return to campus she took her own life.
Her death spurred thousands of women to march against gender violence last week in what organizers dubbed the TotalShutDown protest – delivering a list of demands to the parliament and other top governmental bodies.
Violence against women is now a “priority crime” in South Africa. But the situation remains dire: statisticians estimate there are 138 rapes for every 100,000 women, compared with 6.4 per 100,000 in Switzerland, for instance.
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