Demon rape interview OK'd

2009-04-28 21:49

Cape Town - A Free State radio station's interview with a man who claimed he was being raped nightly by a tokolosh did not exceed the bounds of freedom of expression, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission has ruled.

In the ruling, released on Tuesday, the commission dismissed one complainant's claim that Radio OFM had made fun of a mentally ill person by broadcasting the interview.

Another complainant, identified only as R Thirtle, took interviewer Rian van Heerden to task for making light of what he said was a very real phenomenon.

"It is a fact that the Spirit Incubus rapes people in the evenings," Thirtle said.

"And it is particularly common among the black people... who follow the traditional religion of ancestor worship. But more general among black women, who are raped by the tokolosh in the evenings.

"It is not a story, it is a fact, there are thousands of witnesses to verify it. It is a very traumatic experience to be raped in the dark by a heavy thing sitting on your legs, over which you have no control.

"And to know that it is a demon that is doing it, is even worse."

The commission said it received a total of four complaints about the interview, broadcast just before 17:00 on March 18.

The complainants had claimed the interview was unsuitable for children and had been broadcast at a time when large numbers of children could be expected to be listening.

However the commission ruled that the target audience of the station was not children, that those children who did hear the interview would likely not have understood it, and that it contained no grossly offensive language.

The station had also broadcast repeated warnings beforehand that listeners could find the interview offensive.

OFM suspended Van Heerden for two days after the broadcast.

- SAPA