Anti-social behaviour

The need to be avenged for a woman who is raped is very great. However, these feelings can lead to inappropriate behaviour towards loved ones and other members of the community.

The police in South Africa acknowledge that survivors of sexual assault, along with their friends and family, feel very angry after an attack.

As Superintendent Andre Neethling says, ‘It’s important that people need to do something with their anger because people are extremely angry when something like this happens, especially when the young children are brutally attacked.’

Lisa Vetten, who is manager of the Gender Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa says,‘What does concern me is, I don’t think there is enough discussion around the constructive things that people could do to channel their anger and their outrage.’

Charlene Smith, a journalist and survivor of sexual assault, adds: ‘I think we should never hate, because I think hate makes us like the perpetrator, like the criminal. Hate destroys us as badly as it destroys them. So I don’t think we hate, but I don’t think we forgive, because to forgive is to demean our pain, to forgive is to say it wasn’t that bad, I got over it and if I look at myself and I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of my family and I’m proud of my survivors because we’ve worked very hard to be happy and to be confident, but we all have pain inside forever after I think.’

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