Its ok to “rape” men and boys! Only in South Africa!

In South Africa we have a Constitution; apparently it is the highest law in the land. In reality this is far from the truth as we all found out on the 10^th of May 2007 when the highest court in our land, the Constitutional Court, ruled that a man cannot be raped.

To begin with enshrined in out “most holy” of laws is the Bill of Rights. Under this we have the equality clause that states in section 9 that,

1.     Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.

2.     Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken.

3.     The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.

4.      No person may unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds in terms of subsection (3). National legislation must be enacted to prevent or prohibit unfair discrimination.

5.     Discrimination on one or more of the grounds listed in subsection (3) is unfair unless it is established that the discrimination is fair.

All of the above makes perfect sense as it is written in plain English. In fact the above section was used in a recent Constitutional Court decision which ruled late last year that the then definition of marriage was unconstitutional and that if Parliament did not change it then the definition would automatically change on the 1^st of December 2006.

YAY!!!

Notice that the Court had forced the Government (i.e. the Legislature) to change the law with its decision as that will be VERY important to the following rationalization of the whole “men cannot be raped” deal.

In the “man rape” case our enlightened and august Court bench warmers ruled that the non-consensual penetration of a man’s anus does not constitute rape but that the same non-consensual penetration of a female’s anus does in fact constitute rape. The reasoning for this is that our Constitutional Court found that extending the definition of rape encroached on legislative terrain.

HOLY DOUBLE STANDARDS BATMAN!!!

Go and re-read that. 

 Yes you were right. In the case of same-sex marriage the Constitutional Court encroached on legislative terrain, there is no other way one can view it, they forced the Government to change. In the second instance they backed away due to legislative encroachment. Not only that but they took a great big shit on the Equality clause above as sub-section 1, 2 and 3 are now completely ignored in terms of protecting the men and boys of this country.

So as it stands if you as a man, your son or any other male has your/his poopschute forcibly penetrated you are indecently assaulted and not raped.  This means that if your 10 year old boy gets raped so badly that he cannot walk and that his rectum does not function, instead of getting the mandatory life sentence for the rape of a minor the perpetrator will get a lesser sentence as there is  no prescribed sentence for indecent assault.

Xolani Mbambani stands accused of just such a crime. I hope his 10 year male old victim is comforted by Justice Nkabinde’s decision…

Makes you feel safe and secure doesn’t it?