Alarming toll of sexual violence
ONE in four women raped. One in five HIV infections. One in three cases of depression. This is the alarming toll of sexual violence on women living in the heart of the platinum mining belt in Rustenburg, reveals Doctors Without Borders in a startling new report.
For many women, living in the heart of the platinum belt, sexual violence has become part of their daily lives. “Violence is routine,” says Rosina Palai, a community health worker, in the new report.
The statistics are “shocking but not uncommon” in South Africa, notes “Untreated violence: The need for patient-centred care for survivors of sexual violence in the platinum mining belt”.
Its new analysis of data detailing the extent of sexual violence in the Rustenburg region finds one in five HIV infections (about 6 765 of all female cases) and one in three cases of depression among women (5 022 cases) are attributable to rape and intimate-partner violence, while one in three women inducing abortion (1 296 cases) from pregnancies as a result of sexual violence.
It presented these findings at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in the US yesterday, which is a follow-up from an in-depth 2015 survey conducted by the organisation among more than 800 women living in communities along the mining belt.
There, the health consequences of sexual violence “remain largely unaddressed and demand urgent action”.
“Sexual violence is widespread in Rustenburg, affecting people of all ages and genders. Twenty-five percent of survey participants personally knew a woman who was raped, six knew a man who was raped, while 21% of women knew a child who had been raped.
“Very few survivors seek healthcare services following an incident, afraid of public embarrassment, judgment by staff and being isolated in their communities,” says the report.
“Opportunities are missed each day to prevent HIV-infection, psychological trauma, and unwanted pregnancy for victims of sexual violence on the platinum mining belt, because there are too few health facilities with the capacity to provide essential care.”
The organisation is calling for the inclusion of ambitious targets for increasing sexual violence survivors’ access to medical and psychosocial services at health f acilities. Key interventions include post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, psychosocial support, emergency contraception and the option of forensic examination.
“It is not unrealistic to expect, at a minimum, every sub-district in the country has a health centre that can provide an essential package of care to mitigate the consequences of rape and other sexual violence,” said the report.