South Africa has the world's highest rate of rape. Full stop.

if there's one thing africa develops in me on a daily basis, it's a violent reaction to sexual predators. maybe because i'm meeting more and more young boys who have or currently are being preyed upon by nasty old perverted men.

this morning i joined the first african protest i've had the chance to be involved in. this past week a 62 year old british anglican priest was arrested for "raping" (more on that word later) 2 brothers from zimbabwe, street children who recently moved to cape town because their parents died in a bus accident. the oldest boy is 16 and his brother is 10. both boys have been treated nicely by this priest for a while now, and only recently has it come out that this man is raping these boys. it became public knowledge when the man, this past tuesday, was arrested after the 16 year old went to the police. he had found footage of this man raping his little brother.

today we drove into town and joined the street people, transvestites, gangsters, lawyers, ngo managers, and any other random person who felt connected to this situation. we held signs saying "cut it off" and "street children are not souveniers". me, melissa, ryan and worm got front row views of this man as he wore a towel over his head into the courtroom. we were blocked off by the glass doors that a police officer had shoved a bench in front of so we couldn't get through.

as the man's case was heard, i sat on the stoop of a complex outside while my friends and fellow protestors waited at the back door for the man to be escorted out. i thought about the following:

1--south african legistlation does not include a law against male-on-male rape. rape, according to south african law, is a male raping female. there is no law against oral sex or sodomy, which means that these pedohiles cannot be charged for raping young boys in south africa--because there is no LAW against it, or even saying that it exists as a possibility. so, regardless of our protests, this man will get off.

2--street children are especially susceptible to sexual abuse and exploitation because they are enslaved to drug addiction or to anyone who will give them money. they are dependent on society's handouts, even when attaining those handouts means doing things that might be wrong.

3--the majority of africans are not white. and the majority of africans live in one room shacks where, from birth, they are witnessing the sexual activity of their parents. it's a common occurence, and so this fuzzies up the line when it comes time for that child to be sexually involved. sex is normal, even sex with many different people, and so how does an already vulnerable and abandoned child suddenly know that he doesn't have to consent to sex with a man, an authority figure, or anyone else for that matter.

4--england has sex tourism laws, south africa does not. this means that this man can be charged in england for the sexual crimes he committed in cape town. this is a good thing, because........

at about 2 pm this afternoon, anthony hogg, the anglican priest i saw today was handed his passport by a south african judge and told he's free to go home. just like that.

this should come as no shock, since 4 days ago, jacob zuma was found not guilty of raping an HIV positive woman half his age.

but the reporters said it well, and i quote:
"If anything good has come from this sordid and sorry saga it is that it has sensitised the government and the public to the urgent need for reform of the law and legal process relating to rape cases."
if legistlative reform moves at the same pace as anything else in africa, then the words of such reporters reflect the ideal, not the reality.