Rape is endemic in South Africa.
On this the police, politicians, sociologists and rape survivors all agree. There is a silent war going on, a war against women and children.
It is a fact that a woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped, than learning how to read.
One in four girls faces the prospect of being raped before the age of 16 according to the child support group, Childline.
Sexual violence pervades society, with one of the highest reported rates of rape in the world, and an alarmingly high incidence of domestic violence and child abuse.
The official crime statistics tell only part of the story.
In 1994, the year South Africa became a democracy, 18,801 cases of rape were reported. By 2001 that figure had risen to 24,892.
The South African Police Service readily admits that even though there is now a greater awareness of the problem, more stringent penalties, and better policing, the vast majority of rapes and attempted rapes still go unreported and unpunished.
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