Johannesburg - For every 10 women who are raped and duly open police cases against their perpetrators, one man is raped too, shocking crime statistics which were released on Thursday reveal.
The crime statistics showed that more than 33 125 women were victims of rape during the 2018/19 financial year, along with 3 573 male victims who opened rape cases in the same period. There were a total of 41 583 cases of rape opened in the 2018/19 financial year, the police said.
The shocking rape statistics also show that 205 young girls, and 80 young boys, were raped.
The elderly were not spared either, with persons aged 60+ opening 1 284 rape cases. By sex, elderly women opened 1 156 rape cases, while 128 elderly men aged above 60 opened cases too.
The Gauteng province recorded the highest rape incidences in the country in the past financial year, with 8 417 cases of the country’s reported 41 583 incidences.
The province accounts for more than 20.2% of rape incidences in the country.
The Gauteng province has seen rape incidences increase by 4.4%, as there were 8 062 rape cases opened in the 2017/18 financial year, as opposed to the 8 417 in 2018/19.
In Gauteng, there were 355 more cases opened compared to the previous year, while the highest increases in rape cases were reported in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, where rape cases increased by 484 and 424 respectively. The total rape cases in those provinces were, KZN - 7 667, and EC - 7 305.
The crime statistics also showed that out of the 8 417 rape incidences in Gauteng, in 6 734 cases the victim was a female, while in 827 incidences, the victim was a male.
Followed by Gauteng, the Eastern Cape had the highest number of female rape victims with 5 986, KZN with 5 895, Western Cape with 3 574 and Limpopo with 2 934.
Gauteng was also the province with the highest incidences of male rape victims, followed by KZN with 674, the Eastern Cape with 470 and the Western Cape with 366.
The statistics also revealed that the rape victims who were most affected by rape were between the ages of 10 - 39, with the age group 20-29 being the most affected.
Rape by Age (Male and Female)
0-9 285
10-19 7 395
20-29 12 935
30-39 8 566
40-49 4 277
50-59 1 956
60+ 1 284
The crime statistics showed that women aged between 20-29, were most likely to be raped in South Africa, with the 11 861 rape cases opened by that age group, accounting for 28.5% of all rape crimes in the country.
Women aged between 30-39 were the next most likely target, with 7 658 rape cases and teenagers, aged between 10-19, were the third most likely target of rape, with more than 6 852 incidences recorded.