ROSE Moyo is a respected family woman who is a mother of five with three grandmother. She is an accomplished educationist who has served her community as school head for over half a decade.
BY ALOIS VINGA
But despite such a reputation, she is haunted by sad memories which often erode her confidence. Events of the day an education inspector who is her superior raped her at work continue to torment her.
“How will the community members and family accept what has happened to me?’’
Such are the experiences of victims of adult rape. The Zimbabwe Criminal Code outlines that rape occurs when a male person knowingly has sexual intercourse with a female person without consent or with a real possibility that she may not have consented to it.
According to the Zimbabwe Republic Police, over 1 000 women report rape cases every year. This trend is alarming.
Notably, Zimbabwe enacted the Domestic Violence Act, Criminal Code and the Constitution to addresses this matter. The Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development ministry and other civic organisations such as Zimbabwe Women Lawyers’ Association and Musasa Project have worked tirelessly to protect women from social vices that compromise their rights.
To this end, the ministry has a current plan in operation known as the Zimbabwe National Gender-Based Violence Strategy that was launched in 2012 and runs through to the end of this year.
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However, despite the numerous interventions, the number of women who get raped continues to rise.
Commenting on the medical aspects of rape, Parirenyatwa Hospital Adult Rape Clinic (ARC) programme manager Sister Magna Kurangwa, said: “Three-hundred-and-fifty women were treated of rape side-effects in 2014 at the ARC alone. Sixty-five percent of the cases were perpetrated by people known to the victim while 35% of the cases emerged from strangers.”
Kurangwa highlighted that lack of health care after rape could lead to unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and HIV and Aids.
“Women are raped at the workplaces, churches and by total strangers while passing through secluded places or boarding private vehicles. The majority are, however, discouraged from reporting to the police due to the embarrassment associated with bringing the suspects to book while some fear being blamed for what they experienced,” she said.
“Others become suspicious as to what would happen to them if they are not believed and they cannot risk possible breakdown of their marriages, which is more common after being raped.”
Kurangwa further explained that mental health effects associated with rape in the short term could cause fear, anxiety, eating and sleeping disorders, shame, embarrassment and anger while in the long term victims may contemplate suicide.
Victims may resort to substance abuse, promiscuity, increased sexual activity and often lack motivation to use protection in future sexual activities.
The Zimbabwe Violence Against Women (VAW) Baseline Study of 2014 states that 7% of raped women report to the police while 93% of the cases go unreported.
Only 4% seek medical attention.
This clearly highlights that there are millions of adult rape after-effects victims experience. The golden question which one is faced with then is: “What exactly needs to be done to curb rape?”
ZWLA legal officer Paidamoyo Mukumbiri stressed that dealing with the issue required proper legal mainstreaming and taking the matter as a priority.
“Legally raising defence of consent is quite challenging for most women as they fail to prove their agreement to the sexual act,” Mukumbiri said. “Most of them go at pains in explaining since the prosecution often focuses more on proving consent. What makes the entire exercise complicated in the courts is that adults are not treated the same as minors who have the privilege of giving evidence in a victim-friendly court on camera in the absence of close people.
“Adult victims are tried in the same court with the perpetrators and other close family members who may include their spouses, children and even their in-laws. This instils fear in the victims, which becomes a barrier for them in giving adequate evidence. There is urgent need for the courts to prioritise adult rape by making sure that there are proper conditions for conducting the cases just as they do on children’s issues in order to promote confidence.”
Assessing the impact of not reporting and the state of counselling in the country, counselling doctoral student Webster Chihambakwe, who is also Counselling Department chairperson at the Zimbabwe Open University and former counsellor at the Zimbabwe Republic Police Victim-Friendly Unit noted: “Cultural norms remain a major obstacle in promoting reportage of rape issues. Normally victims do not appreciate counselling from people who are not members of the family line.
“Some are not comfortable being counselled by police officers of the victim-friendly unit because they suspect that what they divulge will be used to nail them in the courts. Hence much of the information provided by the victims falls short of fomenting concrete allegations when the matters go to the courts.”
He added: “Eradicating rape will require intensive investment into research to find the link to educate the populace. Efforts must be put in place to create a one-stop shop infrastructure where the victims report to the police and seek medical attention at the same location.”
However, according to the VAW Baseline Study report, an expert in women’s rights Dr Perpetual Gumbo observed that: “Laws, policies and facilities are only as good as women access and use them. The situation demands a reduction of barriers to the use of services by survivors.
“Key to the reduction of these barriers is broader training interventions for police officers and health practitioners to increase the effectiveness of specialised units that have been put in place. We cannot ignore the need for capacity building of service providers to reduce secondary victimisation of survivors when they seek help. Training service providers, including traditional authorities who mediate in family disputes, will go a long way in eliminating the barriers to survivors’ disclosure of their circumstances.”
Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) president Johannes Ndanga added his voice and said the rate at which women were being raped in the country was heartbreaking.
“What boggles the mind is that most of the reports are on cases taking place in the church, community and the workplace,” Ndanga said.
“Much of these problems originate from the emergence of contemporary church doctrine which now focuses more on the gospel of prosperity, ignoring the proper functions of the church which is to build families in moral uprightness.
“The worrying factor is that in some instances, church leaders are pointed in these scandals yet the society expects them to nurture the society. This calls for urgent engagement of the major church bodies such as Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Zimbabwe Council of Churches, Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, ACCZ and traditional leaders as well as other relevant stakeholders.
“This will provide a platform for proper framing of national sociocultural policies which will serve as cornerstones to build decent communities.”
