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South African medics blast rape of doctor in hospital

13 November 2010 00:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The South African medical profession has expressed its shock and concern over the gang-rape of a doctor, who was attacked while she tended to ill patients last week, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

Experts have also come out; warning that unless more is done to rectify the country’s social problems, more attacks are women will continue to happen.

It is alleged that on November 2, the 35-year-old female doctor was on duty at the Pelonomi Regional Hospital in the province of Bloemfontein, when she was overpowered by three men in a ward at the hospital.

According to police in the province, she was forced into a room of the hospital where she was hit her over the head with a brick.

While she was unconscious, the men allegedly tool turns to rape her.

A 16-year-old boy and two men, aged 24 and 29, were arrested, after one of the suspects left his wallet at the scene.

The three accused appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Their trial will begin on Monday next week.

The South African Medical Association (SAMA) said that it was deeply shocked by the attack.

"We once again make it very clear that our members are not safe at public institutions," said the organisation’s chairman, Dr Norman Mabasa in a statement this week.

SAMA Chief Executive, Marella O’Reilly agreed: "We already have a shortage of healthcare professionals in South Africa and the exodus of practitioners to other countries as a result of these types of incidents."

Democratic Nursing Association of South Africa (DENOSA) agrees with SAMA.

"It is also worth noting that this barbaric act happened just at the beginning of the month of the International 16 Days of Activism against Violence and Abuse of Women and Children.

This incident also demonstrates the fast pace at which our societal moral fiber is decaying and calls on leaders from different platforms to condemn it with the contempt it deserves," the organization stated.

The organization called on the South African Department of Health to act "with diligence" in dealing with the issue.

"This shows that government hospitals are no longer places where community members and Health Care Workers feel free to access and deliver health services respectively.

It is also important to mention that this is not first incident where a health care provider was violently attacked recently while delivering health care service. This is against the background where an incident occurred in another hospital in the province where a nurse was stabbed by a patient," the organization continued in a media statement.

The Department of Health was urged to work in collaboration with the police to ensure that the culprits are brought to book, while "vehement steps are taken to restore sanity and safety at public hospitals."

Following a media enquiry by Xinhua News Agency on Friday, the Department of Health’s spokesman, Charity Bhengu, said newly appointed Deputy Minister Gwen Ramokgopa led a high-level delegation from the Health Department on a fact-finding mission to the Pelonomi Regional Hospital in Bloemfontein.

"The purpose of the visit was to investigate the circumstances into the reported sexual assault of a female medical doctor. Dr Ramokgopa made a personal visit to the affected medical practitioner to deliver a message of support," Bhengu said in a telephonic interview on Friday.

Bhengu said the deputy minister would be addressing workplace safety measures as well as policy issues to ensure the protection of health professionals, patients as well as visitors to the hospital.

While the minister compiles a report on the incident, gender activists and experts on the study of sexual violence; have called for an overhaul of South Africa’s national school curriculum, in an effort to curb the rape of women.

"We should look at changing the curriculum in our schools to focus more on violence and gender roles, with a move away from aggressive behavior in men," Lisa Vetten, senior researcher for the Tswaranang Legal Advocacy Center in Johannesburg, told a Xinhua correspondent in a telephonic interview on Friday.

Vetten said that in addition to the rape of the female doctor, the alleged gang-rape of a 15-year-old Johannesburg schoolgirl by fellow pupils and the brutal mass rape and murders of at least five women in Langa in the Western Cape in the last month are cause for concern.

"These rapes were reported, but there are hundreds more that are not reported to the police," she added.

The apparent resurgence in rape has sparked widespread outrage, with concern for the safety of women in the run-up to the International 16 Days of Activism of No Violence on Women and Children.

Gender activists agree that rape is the most traumatic experience any woman may encounter, while they also concur that incidents of rape are becoming increasingly brutal and violent.

"It’s hard to tell the extent of rape or to determine if it is rampant or out of control, because the quality of police statistics in South Africa is problematic. My impression is that the incidents of rape are incredibly high, they certainly are among the highest in the world," said Vetten.

Spokesman for the Johannesburg-based Sonke Gender Justice Network, Mbuyiselo Botha, told Xinua News Agency in a telephonic interview on Friday that young men in the country are being socialized to regard women as mere sexual objects.

"Boys grow up in the belief that women are available to satisfy the sexual whims and desires of men. This mindset needs to changed, " said Botha.

In addition to a revamping of the country’s school curriculum, Vetten believes more can be done to make sure that perpetrators are brought to book.

"The criminal justice system is not working, and because of this failure, perpetrators of rape are encouraged to think that they will not get caught or be punished for their actions and behaviour," she said.

"We need to look at life orientation in the curriculum, to focus on what it means to be a boy, and integrate boys’ and girls’ sexuality in the curriculum to change the mindset of boys to respect women’s bodes and to empower girls to assert themselves and protect and advance their rights," said Botha.

Vetten urged that measures be put in place to reduce aggressive impulses in men and boys.

"We should have programs in schools that target boys and try to encourage in them to be less aggressive in their masculinity. There is a definite need to unlearn the behavior, which is embedded in our culture that encourage and reward violent aggressive behavior in men," she said.