FEMALE rapists will feel the full brunt of the law and will be treated the same way by the courts as their male counterparts, a female rapist who raped another woman with a vibrator recently discovered.
Last week, a captain in the South African National Defence Force, Sandisiwe Nongonwana, was sentenced in the Pretoria Regional Court to 10 years imprisonment, for raping her now former friend - a lieutenant in the SANDF - with a pink vibrator.
Magistrate Kallie Bosch, in sentencing her, made it clear that the punishment for rape should not be adjusted, simply because she was a female.
Nongonwana pleaded not guilty to rape and claimed that she had performed sexual acts on her friend, with her consent. The court rejected this following the emotional evidence of the victim, who said in a victim impact report that the incident had left her shattered.
The court heard that in March 2022, the accused and the victim spent the day together, drinking alcohol. They drank Amarula and Savanna and smoked dagga before they went back to the Military hospital residence, where the accused lived.
They listened to music and decided to go to a bar to have more drinks, which included several shooters. The two later returned to the room of the accused and the victim decided to stay over.
As the victim was drunk, she lay across the bed and her friend helped her to undress and covered her with a blanket.
The victim testified that she woke up in pain and discovered that her friend was raping her with a vibrator.
According to the accused, her friend called her boyfriend earlier when she was about to go to sleep and that she, the friend, was the one who had asked for a vibrator. The accused said they kissed and she then used the vibrator on her friend’s vagina. But, she said, she stopped after her friend told her to stop.
The victim, however, said she never gave permission to have sex with her friend and she was extremely upset at what happened. She sent the accused a message the next day asking her why she had done that and had then unfriended her.
In her victim impact report, the victim, said she was in pain and disbelief after the incident.
“I felt dirty, exposed and angry with myself. I was ashamed and embarrassed,” she said.
Although she had undergone therapy to help her, the victim said she still had nightmares.
Legal expert John Njau meanwhile said the law in respect of rape had evolved due to the substantial reform of sexual offence laws in South Africa post the constitutional democracy, as well as the impact of the Bill of Rights.
“Rape is now seen as being less about sex and more about the execution of power over the victim’s integrity, privacy and dignity.”
Njau said the broadened definition and understanding of rape ensured that both men and women receive equal protection from the law.
According to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, rape is defined as any act of non-consensual sexual penetration, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration, with any part of the body or an object.
“Rape thus involves all forms of sexual penetration without the victim’s consent, no matter the gender of the victim or the perpetrator,” he explained.
Njau added that sexual penetration was defined by law as any act which caused penetration to any extent by either genital organs of one person into genital organs, anus or mouth of another, or using any object into the genital organs or anus of another person.
“From this definition it is clear that it doesn’t matter whether the vagina or the anus is penetrated; whether the perpetrator is a male or female; whether the victim is a female or male and whether the penetration is by penis or by some object.”
Njau said if the penetration was done without consent, it was regarded as rape.
“South Africa is regarded as the rape capital of the world with a woman raped every 12 minutes. With rape being such a big problem in the country, it requires all stakeholders such as the police, prosecution and the courts to play their part regarding the administration of justice as an effort to eradicating rape from our communities.”
Njau said the magistrate in this case rightly applied the law by convicting and sentencing the woman perpetrator for rape, after she had used a vibrator to penetrate another woman (the victim) without the victim’s consent.
Pretoria News
zelda.venter@inl.co.za