South African Judge’s Rape Remarks ‘Racist’
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A white South African judge has been condemned after comments emerged in which she suggested rape is part of black culture.
High Court Judge Mabel Jansen made the remarks in Facebook messages to social justice activist Gillian Schutte.
Referring to black people, Ms Jansen wrote: “In their culture a woman is there to pleasure them. Period.
“It is seen as an absolute right and a woman’s consent is not required.”
Ms Jansen, who sits in the High Court in Pretoria, added: “I still have to meet a black girl who was not raped at about 12. I am dead serious.”
“Murder is also is not a biggy. And gang rapes of baby, daughter and mother (are) a pleasurable pastime.”
The comments were made around a year ago, but they resurfaced at the weekend in a Facebook post by Ms Schutte.
Petitions have since been launched to remove her as a judge amid a social media storm.
Local media reported that Ms Jansen was not responding to questions as her husband died on Saturday.
On Monday, she said on Twitter that she had been “taken completely out of context”.
“What I stated confidentially to somebody in a position to help has been taken completely out of context and referred to specific court cases,” she said.
Ms Schutte claims the comments were made in public posts and were not part of a private conversation.
“Mabel Jansen did not contact me for advice on victims as she claims. She joined in a fb debate and then inboxed me on same day,” she said on Twitter.
Political parties have rushed to condemn Ms Jansen’s remarks.
The opposition Democratic Alliance party said the comments were “not only hurtful and demeaning”, but undermined “the dignity of our people”.
It said it would report the comments to South Africa’s Judicial Services Commission to investigate whether she breached her judicial oath.
The women’s league of the ruling African National Congress also criticised the judge.
“Her comments made on Facebook where she claims that the rape of young children is part of black culture, are purely racist and misrepresentation of facts about black culture,” it said.
The league also questioned whether the judge could deal fairly with cases of rape in court.
The outrage comes after a series of racism rows sparked by comments on social media.
Earlier this year a white estate agent Penny Sparrow was widely criticised after her racist Facebook post went viral.
In it she complained about black people littering beaches and likened them to “monkeys”.
In the ensuing uproar, a local government employee Velaphi Khumalo wrote in another viral Facebook post that blacks should act towards whites “as Hitler did to the Jews”.
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