I was 19 when I was raped. In the long term it altered my life’s course to such an extent that it never really recovered, in the short term the self-hate coloured, distorted and polluted everything. This all happened many years ago and I’ve long since made peace with it.

At the same time I am opposed to the death penalty in all cases. I do not believe that it solves anything, ever. It would definitely not have given me my life back. Our penal system is ineffective at resolving or reducing crime or affecting behaviour, but could that be because the effectiveness and corruptibility of the police and the judiciary is in question?

The 17 year old victim should be the considered and given support and care. When it happened to me (1990) I didn’t tell anyone until 3 years later, until my life had taken several turns for the worse.

>>. I agree with you, I also think Rape is a terrible thing.
But I am not 100% sure in this case it was rape. I think they only said it was rape to protect the 17 Year old from also being prosecuted.
So I feel sorry for the 2 men. But Like the report said, its very unclear what happened and they are covering it up. So we will never realy know.
I am just cratefull we live in a free country like South Africa, where our freedome has been fought fore and there are people protecting us.