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CNN Live At Daybreak

South Africa Has Wave of Infant Rape

Aired December 11, 2001 - 06:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In South Africa, there is shock and growing anger over several cases of rape in the past month. In each case, the victims were infants. As CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports, some people are blaming the crimes on South Africa's AIDS policy. We must warn you that viewers may find some of the discussion in this report graphic and disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT (voice-over): She is five months old and suffering, violently raped, brutally damaged.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she had come in, she was bleeding quite a bit, because her major problem is a quarter (ph) -- it's what's called a third-degree tear. It's a laceration...

GAULT: Emergency surgery was performed. She is expected to live, but doctors say they don't know when the physical and emotional scars will heal. Her pediatric surgeon, Dr. Graeme Pitcher, says rape of children isn't new anywhere in the world, but rape of infants, such as this one and almost a dozen others recently, is unique to South Africa.

GAULT (on camera): I don't know what I expected to find when I got here. I certainly didn't expect to find a smiling, bright-eyed young lady looking up at me with great curiosity. It's difficult to imagine what she has been through, but it's even more difficult to imagine how anyone could have put her through it.

(voice-over): A question being asked by these women, expressing their anger outside the courthouse where two men, one 17, the other 24, are about to appear in court, charged with the crime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They must be locked, and throw away the keys.

WINNIE MADIKIZELA MANDELA, ANC WOMEN'S LEAGUE: This is an indictment to our society. This is an indictment to our country. What is it that we have not done?

GAULT: For some, like these protesters who sang, shouted and displayed crib sheets, symbolic of the offense, the answer was that government has sent mixed messages about the cause of HIV/AIDS, and in particular, hasn't done enough to dispel the myth that having sex with an infant, or any virgin, will cure or prevent AIDS, believed by many to be one of the major causes behind the spate of infant rapes.

DR. GRAEME PITCHER, PEDIATRIC SURGEON: The approach of evading the issue, cloaking the the situation with misinformation results in the community being improperly apprised of the facts, and allows myths like this to take hold and to be propagated.

GAULT: President Thabo Mbeki recently reiterated that he's satisfied with his government's HIV/AIDS program. And on infant rape, he said in his weekly online newsletter: "These acts of criminal and inhuman violence have to be stopped."

But a growing chorus of voices, including government officials, are saying that words are not enough.

NOMVULA MOKONYANE, GOVERNMENT SAFETY OFFICER: My worry, my fear is that there will come a point, and we are almost there, where we will not be able to hold back the anger of our people.

GAULT: Anger and shock and pain, even among those whose professions generally inure them to such emotions.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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