Police in Cape Town, South Africa have arrested a suspect in connection with the brutal rape of a gay man on Saturday night.
The victim, whose name has not been released to the public to protect his identity, stopped to buy cigarettes while on a walk down Cape Town’s Church Street. A stranger across the street asked if he could share a cigarette, and the victim agreed. After walking a short distance, the stranger then grabbed the victim and forced him into some nearby bushes where he raped him.
The victim returned home crying that night, waking his children and prompting his mother to alert law enforcement.
Related: A bunch of Fox News anchors have just been accused of rape and sexual harassment in damning lawsuit
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“He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and we fear what these incidents will do to him,” the victim’s mother told South African outlet IOL. “From what he’s telling us it seems as if the perpetrator had been planning this,” she added.
The victim’s mother goes on to say that the family knows and accepts the victim as a gay man, though the family fears for his safety in the homophobic climate of Cape Town. She also says this isn’t the first time he’s been attacked.
“He was almost raped here in Langa [a neighborhood in Cape Town] and at boarding school in Stellenbosch,” the victim’s mother says. “He once arrived here traumatized after he was attacked and almost got raped by a group of men in Stellenbosch.” She also added that he’s experienced insomnia as a result of the Saturday attack.
For the greater Cape Town community, the attack on this victim sends an ominous signal about the safety of the city, and about the nature of sex crimes in general.
“This is the first case we have dealt with and to have such cases where there are calls for the end of gender-based violence and the raping not only of women and children but everyone is upsetting,” said Anele Gqasana of Langa Community Advice Services, a legal and civil rights counseling group based in Cape Town.
At the time of this writing, police have not released the name of the suspect in the case. He remains in custody awaiting his first court appearance.
South Africa is typically labeled the most queer-friendly destination in Africa. LGBTQ people enjoy marriage equality, discrimination protections in housing and employment, adoption rights and can serve in the military. Public opinion surveys, however, paint a more complicated picture of queer acceptance in the nation. A 2015 survey revealed that though a 51% majority of respondents believed LGBTQ people should have the same rights as straight South Africans, a whopping 72% viewed homosexuality as morally wrong.
dali
Share a cigarette with a stranger? Bad, bad, bad, idea. You live, you learn, I guess, especially when your mom says to the media that you where almost raped once, before.
gayamerican
sounds like a cute twink Afrikaner. He needs to be careful.
quantum
Langa is approx. 99 percent black. I imagine you’ve concocted some racist fantasy that this was a white victim and black perpetrator, but that’s highly unlikely.
gayamerican
Stellenbosch is a Afrikaner town and he went to boarding school there. I am sure he is a cute blonde Afrikaner boy that makes horny Zulu men hot with violent desire!
iminheatlikeacat
Cute blond twinks generally don’t have multiple children but it sounds as if you’ve made your mind up and enjoying fantasising about someone getting raped so I’ll leave you to it.
gayamerican
I guess he is a masculine Twunk.
Raymundo
Dude, fire your dealer
Cam
@gayamerican
Translation: Same old racist troll, brand new screename!
wikidBSTN
Dangers of smoking.
Kevin
Come on guys, don’t be so vicious – jeesh!
BTW… were there any pictures or videos of the incident?!? You know… just to be disgusted about the whole affair! Obviously… jeesh! (1080p hopefully?!?!)
darkanser
I knew someone from Stellenbosch. They grow wonderful grapes there. Just saying…..
Kevan1
Well I hope I’m never raped. No one here seems to give a damn about a victim of sexual assault. Or, maybe you would care if it were you who had been violently beaten and raped… then again maybe you wouldn’t. It would seem some people obviously do not feel anything.
Rock-N-RollHS
Oh, calm down gurl. Don’t do anything rash yet. There is always tomorrow!
quantum
Some sad context from wikipedia:
“The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest in the world. […] During 2015/16, there were 51,895 crimes of a sexual nature reported to the South African Police Service.”
“About 19.4% of all adult victims of sexual assault in South Africa in 2012 were male. Another group’s survey estimates that one in five adult males become victims of sexual offences, and this figure could be much higher as a male is 10 times less likely to report a sexual violation than a woman. There are very few support networks for male victims of rape in the country, which makes it difficult and even pointless for men to report being raped.”
Now stop, read all of that again, slowly, and try and have some damn compassion before you blame the victim or respond flippantly.
Cam
Really? We’re blaming the victim here in the comments???
Rock-N-RollHS
Oh the horror. How do you get up every morning! All the outrage and injustice!
joeboyle49
ITS A SHAME THAT YOU CAN’T WALK DOWN THE STREET ANYWHERE YOU GO MALE OR FEMALE!! RAPE IS BAD AND WHOEVER IT WAS NEEDS TO GO TO PRISON!!!
Toofie
The jokey comments here are awful. A lot of garbage is posting lately.