S. Africa Mulls Chemical Castration for Repeat Rapists

In a country with the highest rate of rape in the world, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said Wednesday that a commission is studying the possibility of chemically castrating repeat rapists.

“The South African Law Commission is currently considering the human rights implications and feasibility of chemically castrating repeat sex offenders. Their report will be considered once it is compiled,” Zuma told parliament.

Chemical castration, carried out by injecting a cocktail of hormones, is already practiced on repeat sex offenders in the United States, parliamentarians were told.

A rape is reported on average every 12 minutes in South Africa, but the Justice Ministry admitted Monday that in all probability only one in every 36 rapes is reported.

Vigilante groups have started springing up around the country, handing out summary beatings to suspected rapists before reluctantly handing them over to police.

A group of youths who gang-raped and then stabbed 42 times a young girl earlier this year in what is believed to have been a gang initiation have all withdrawn their bail applications on the grounds that they are safer in prison than in the community.

As it stands, the law currently mandates life imprisonment for a rapist unless there are significant mitigating circumstances.

However, a judge recently caused an uproar by handing down a seven-year sentence to a man on the grounds that he had only raped his 14-year-old daughter and therefore did not represent a threat to society.