Hon Speaker and hon members, South Africans lack hope and optimism. This is what the Minister of Finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan, said on Monday. He was speaking at the release of the Goldman Sachs report at the Nelson Mandela Foundation meeting in Houghton. One person asked the question: How can we not feel hopeless if we know we are all living on borrowed time before being raped and disembowelled?
This was the case in the gruesome death of the young woman in Bredasdorp, Anene Booysen. Her rapist and murderer has been sentenced to two life terms. This must have sent chills down the spineless gang members who took part in gang-raping and murdering Anene Booysen. The swiftness and turnaround time in dealing with this case deserve accolades. We are also hoping that this will prevent first-time rapists and murderers from committing these gruesome crimes. If more first-time and serial rapists can be put behind bars, comments like, "We have rape as a national sport! What would you like us to be so bloody hopeful about?" will change and South Africans will be cheerful.
This will only happen when the Criminal (Law Forensic) Procedures Amendment Bill, commonly referred to as the DNA Bill, is passed and assented to by President Zuma. There are 1 500 serial rapists hanging about in our neighbourhoods around the country. When they are arrested, they manage to escape and evade law enforcement agents. When they are behind bars, the conviction rate is 4,9% of all reported cases. The DNA Bill will enable the testing of rape convicts already in the system. This will also close a number of cold cases, which will hopefully lead to the linking of cases to multiple rapists who are already in jail.
I would also like to assume that judging by the use of DNA in the investigation of cases by forensic detectives, the rate of arrests will also increase. The use of DNA is indeed giving women and children in South Africa high hopes. It is bringing back the optimism destroyed by a lack of intervention and policy.
This is what South African men have been doing in the two decades of our hard-earned freedom: Women have been overpowered and raped in the comfort of their beds. Others are raped in front of their children and partners. Women are not safe and cannot walk in the streets alone, lest they are accosted by these sick people.
Children are also unsafe at home and in schools. If it is not gang violence in the streets of Manenberg, Khayelitsha and Nyanga that puts women and children's lives in danger, school-going children are sexually molested by teachers on school premises. In one of Gauteng's impoverished areas, Diepsloot, two little Mali girls were found raped and murdered in the toilet in the early hours of the morning. Children are forced to grow up quickly and do not to enjoy their childhood. They cannot play in the parks because sex predators are hanging around. Children are also victims of rape by their landlords. A 57-year-old man was saved by the police from the mob after raping an eight-year-old girl living in a shack on the man's property in Katlehong.
Fathers are raping their infants and little girls instead of loving, nurturing and protecting them. We need more mothers like the one at Tshifulanani village in Thohoyandou, who took her two children, who had been raped by their father to hospital instead of protecting him. Her actions are to be lauded because he is still behind bars. Cope is aware that communities are more effective in catching the criminals. We would therefore like to encourage our communities to play a major role in assisting the police to track down sexual predators and hand them over to the police. They must not take the law into their own hands.
It is better for rapists and murderers to rot in jail for the rest of their lives than to die instantly. They must own up to their deeds alive and kicking. They are unable to cope in prison. This is why Ananius Mathe, sentenced to 54 years in prison in 2009 for rape, attempted murder and other crimes, tried many times to escape. We have prisons like Ebongweni C- Max in Kokstad, where Mathe's last attempt to escape was prevented. All rapists and murderers of women and children must be sent to Ebongweni C- Max. I thank you.