Man raped by women 'traumatised'Sat, 27 Aug 2005
The family of a man who was allegedly raped by three women say he is so traumatised that he won't speak a word to anyone.
"He isn't all right. We are trying to talk to him but he is not saying anything. We are just trying to sort things out," Michelle, the 30-year-old rape victim's sister-in-law, told Sapa on Friday.
West Rand police spokesperson Captain Paula Nothnagel said the man, who cannot be named because he is a rape victim, was raped at gunpoint by three women, between the ages of 30 and 36.
A case of indecent assault had been opened.
The women approached him in a maroon BMW and asked him to get in and direct them to the Savoy Hotel in Roodepoort.
After a drink, they decided to go to the Station Hotel, but on the way there the women changed direction and drove toward a field near Durban Deep Mine.
One of the women produced a firearm and held him at gunpoint, ordering him to undress.
The women then undressed and took turns raping him, before forcing him back into the car and dropping him off on Main Reef Road in Roodepoort.
Nothnagel said the man reported the incident to the police.
"He was very traumatised and the investigating officer took him to the hospital and organised counselling for him," she said.
She told Sapa that the man had undergone HIV testing at Leratong Hospital and that he would be receiving counselling on Monday.
She dismissed reports that the man had been treated cruelly by policemen because he had been raped by women.
"They are trained to handle these sorts of things," she said.
The victim was only able to identify one of the women, of whom an identikit was drawn up.
She is described as a Zulu speaking woman who wears her hear backward in a ponytail, is of slender build and about 1.65m tall.
She was wearing black denim pants, a pink T-shirt, a black leather jacket and a black baseball cap.
Police were however no closer to making any arrests.
Lisa Vetten, Gender Programme manager at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said that while the key issue in rape was one of consent, the current legal definition of rape had a lot of gaps.
Rape was defined as the intentional unlawful sexual intercourse with a women without her consent.
"This doesn't recognise that men can also be raped, whether by other men or by women," she said.
"It also doesn't recognise when women are sodomised or raped with objects such as sticks, bottles and knives, and it doesn't recognise female on female sexual assault."
These were all treated as indecent assault.
One of the implications for this man was that even if his alleged rapists were caught and brought to justice, the presiding officer would have complete discretion when it came to sentencing.
"There is no guideline set out for sentencing in indecent assault. Rape has a minimum sentence of 15 years," said Vetten.
The fact that a man had been raped by women would make no difference in the prosecution as the prosecutor would still have to show all the elements of a crime of indecent assault.
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