Sick and twisted

This past weekend's police crime report has opened a window into our sick and twisted society.

A 20-year-old man, who allegedly cut an eight-year-old girl's genitals with a knife and raped her, was thankfully arrested in the early hours of yesterday.

In another incident, an 11-year-old boy was allegedly sodomised by a 28-year-old man in Stampriet.

In a separate incident in Omatjete, a five-year-old girl was raped, allegedly by her 30-year-old uncle. At a residence in Okombahe, a 27-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a man in his twenties.

In another incident at Groot Aub, a 37-year-old man allegedly raped a 47-year-old woman.

In Windhoek, a woman was raped during an armed robbery at her house in Kleine Kuppe.

What kind of sick and depraved society are we really living in, when women and children are not safe – even in the company of family members? Where will this all end, and more importantly, how do we effectively intervene?

While public outrage can be cathartic, but much more needs to be done about this scourge of sexual violence.

This should be inclusive of painful discussions about rape culture and the way society tends to blame victims and normalise sexual violence.