VU Research Portal ... wood, carved by the knife of circumstance ...? Fransch, C.J.P. 2016 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Fransch, C. J. P. (2016). ... wood, carved by the knife of circumstance ...? Cape rapists and rape in South Africa, c. 1910-1980. Vrije Universiteit. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY “... wood, carved by the knife of circumstance ...”?: Cape Rapists and Rape in South Africa, c. 1910-1980 ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. V. Subramaniam, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen op donderdag 16 juni 2016 om 9.45 uur in de aula van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Chet James Paul Fransch geboren te Bulawayo, Zimbabwe 1 promotoren: prof.dr. S.D.K. Ellis (†) prof.dr. D. Dalakoglou prof.dr. W.R. Nasson Dit proefschrift is tot stand gekomen op basis van een daartoe tussen de Vrije Universiteit en de Stellenbosch University, overeengekomen samenwerkingsverband ter regeling van een gezamenlijke promotie als bedoeld in het Promotiereglement Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, hetgeen mede tot uiting wordt gebracht door de weergave van de beeldmerken van beide universiteiten op deze pagina. 2 Summary This dissertation critically evaluates the various nature/nurture debates about rapists with a particular focus on what was historically called the Cape between the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910 to the transitional period towards the end of apartheid. This study, first and foremost, fills the scholarly lacuna within the historical discipline which places the act of rape as central by paying particular attention to the most prolific group of rapists in this area - coloured rapists. Much of the existing literature on sexual violence unfortunately neglects those racial groups straddled between the black/white divide. In the South African context, contemplating race is a necessity. Four historical eras form the basis of the chronological spine of the dissertation: colonial, segregation, apartheid and post-apartheid eras. The Cape judicial records serve as an essential source of information and these are contrasted with media reports throughout the period of the study. The geographical area under investigation incorporates present day regions of the Northern and Western Cape but excludes the Eastern Cape, which would require a much more focused analysis of the cultural differences between the various black groups. Three questions are posed: who were the rapists, why did they rape and how different are they in comparison to those rapists already discussed within the secondary literature. Chapter 1 introduces the current global literature on rape with a particular focus on theories and myths about why rapists rape. Particular attention is given to other colonial settings. These are compared to conditions in the Cape throughout the dissertation. Chapter 2 narrows the discussion to rapists in South Africa and these studies serve to locate Cape rapists within the South African context. Chapter 3 critically evaluates contemporary views on why rapists rape as well as critically appraising the role of rape statistics and rape surveys in the country. They too fail to explain the historical trends of rape in the Cape. A call is made to rather document the number of rapists as well as rape because of the high numbers of visible serial rapists gleaned from the archives. Chapter 4 begins to critically investigate the changing politico- legal definitions in the country and the sentencing practices in the Cape courts as a way of explaining the continued presence of visible convicted or accused but acquitted rapists. From these court records, several types of rapists are identified in Chapter 5. These include serial rapists, those straddling the divide between incest and statutory rape, statutory rapists, juvenile rapists, baby rapists and gang rapists. It is shown that the increase in juvenile rapists led to much debate about the state of crime, the conditions in which most coloureds lived and the expected increase in criminal activity if no strategies were to be implemented. Baby rapists were shown to precede the HIV scares and virgin cleansing rituals, currently explaining baby rape. These children were victims of circumstance – easy prey for rapists. Both boys and girls were victims of rape and theories on “cycles of violence”, breeding rapists from a young age, as well as theories on masculinities in crisis, regarding the socialisation of young boys, becomes pertinent. These theories are also relevant when exploring gangs. Gang culture in the present literature is linked to moments of crisis on the mines and on the Cape Flats, but gang culture and gang rape in particular, is shown to pre- date that which is suggested in the literature. Chapter 6 pays particular attention to Cape coloured rapists, the most prolific group of rapists in the Cape. Attention is drawn to the particularly turbulent political and social shifts occurring in the area from the 1960s which correlates with the forced removals era and the rise of vigilante groups as a parallel monitoring system to the official policing system. The types of rapists identified transcend both classification as well as spatial and temporal boxes. However, the reasons why they rape and the conditions under which they were born and raised – the environmental factors –changed alongside political dispensations which, in turn, ushered in changing legislation on sex and sexual violence as well as social mores. In colonised settings, the rape/race rhetoric largely defined as well as categorised rapists. Imperial notions of sex and sexuality as well as the Black Peril scares shaped much of the discussion in which race – genetics - determined potential rapists. Changing political, social and economic factors largely affected both definition and explanation as well as blurring the boundaries between potential, hidden, and reported rapists. Those previously considered potential or hidden rapists may have contributed to the recorded numbers of convicted or alleged rapists, not necessarily because their numbers increased, but because they were “uncovered” by changing rape legislation or by a more efficient policing generated by general panic. The effects of the apartheid State implementing legislation regulating sex, sexuality and people also led to some previous categories of rapists to go unnoticed in cases of rape but prosecutable for immoral offences. However, it is concluded that despite changing State legislation during the different political eras, it cannot be said with certainty that the individual cases brought before the Cape courts, and which survived in the archives, were influenced by the broader racial rhetoric. The courts were arguably patriarchal, misogynistic and racialised spaces but the judicial system in rape cases acted according to the sometimes questionable evidence presented, and, for the most part, outside of the historically entrenched racial norms shown to exist in the Cape. Convicted rapists were to be punished and their punishment was to serve as a warning to potential rapists. This could be through passing the death sentence, incarceration or/and corporal punishment. What is apparent is a shift from simply considering the rapist as a pathologised or racially defined rapist to one that is shaped by his context. This made an impact on sentencing trends and strategies on how to rehabilitate rapists, if deemed rehabilitative. No specific racial bias was noticeable, rather class concerns were widespread. There is a long history of coloured intra-racial rape in the Cape, especially amongst the “lower classes” of coloured peoples. This became even more noticeable within coloured communities during the forced removals in Cape Town during the 1960s. Coupled with this was a rising gang menace and general increase in crime at the Cape. What becomes apparent is the rise of juvenile “delinquents” due to the social dislocations and growing economic deprivation, poor housing and facilities and, much like their black counterparts during migration from the colonial era, a lack of internal or communal policing. While much responsibility for regulating rape was left to the courts, it is clear that no racial profiling affected coloured rapists or their victims. Court procedure also contributed to poor rehabilitation of offenders, often resulting in serial rapists, and provided viable excuses for denying that they