SEXUAL OFFENCES COURTS TO DEAL WITH CORRECTIVE RAPE

The minister of justice has told parliament that the new sexual offences courts set to be launched next month will also focus on sex crimes against gays and lesbians.

Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Minister Jeff Radebe said that the 58 courts dedicated to tackling sexual offences will become operational in April.

Similar courts had been launched a decade ago but were later abandoned by the government.

“These dedicated courts are necessary. When there are these dedicated courts, the conviction rate goes up, but when we stopped them, the conviction rate went down,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.

The re-launch of the courts comes amidst a local and international outcry against the burgeoning epidemic of sexual offences against women in South Africa.

Radebe confirmed on Wednesday that the courts will also prioritise sexual offense cases involving attacks against lesbians and gays.

An increasing number of lesbian women have been the targets of so-called “corrective rape” attacks in South Africa, ostensibly in order to ‘turn them’ heterosexual.

Cape Town’s Triangle Project has said that it deals with up to ten new cases of corrective rape a week. It also found that 86% of black lesbian women in the Western Cape live in fear of being sexually assaulted.

These corrective rape assaults form part of a wider hate crime wave against the country’s LGBT community that often includes brutal murders.

Mhaga Mthunzi, spokesperson for the minister, told Mambaonline that the sexual offenses courts may also consider cases of murder that involved sexual offences such as corrective rape.

The government is also working to enact legislation to specifically criminalise hate crimes as a unique form of crime.