Child rape crisis concerns E Cape cops

2012-02-09 11:55

East London - Sexual violence against young children and older people was becoming more frequent in the Eastern Cape, according to provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Marinda Mills.

"We are concerned," said Mills in a report in the Daily Dispatch on Thursday. "The problem is not the lack of policing, but a social-moral issue."

Mills said alcohol often contributed to rape as it made people more lax concerning their safety and surroundings.

The publication reported that the province was reeling from a spate of rapes on children at the weekend.

Police and communities reported four rape cases to the Daily Dispatch involving seven victims, six of them children aged between 7 months and 15 years.

According to the SA Police Service’s latest crime statistics, 9 380 sexual offences were reported in the province between April 2010 and March 2011.

While there were more sexual offences in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the ratio of sexual offences to the population was second highest in the Eastern Cape at 139.1 per 100 000 people.

- SAPA