“What this shows about our society is that we have lost our moral compass when we consider cases of sexual violence against young girls as a joke.”Īfter his release, a television crew also followed Makaza back to his home village - where his victim, who is now 15, still lives - and interviewed him and recorded him saying “life is sweet” and punching the air in delight. “It’s troubling that as a society, we take this as a joke,” said Tendai Mbofana, director at the Zimbabwe Network for Social Justice nongovernmental organization.
The country’s problems with sexual violence against women and girls are generally not taken as seriously as they should be, and this is a stark example of that, the activists say. The way the convicted rapist of a minor has been so casually portrayed has caused a stern reaction from social justice activists, who worry about the wider picture as they see him become a source of amusement.
