South Africa girl, 6, raped by uncle

A six-year-old South African girl has allegedly been raped by a 20-year old man, who the police believes is her uncle. A neighbour discovered the girl after the alleged rape occurred.

The man, who will appear in the KwaMsane Magistrate's Court in the South African province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, was arrested yesterday after a neighbour of the girl had noticed she was taking strain walking. "The neighbour notified the victim's family, the child was taken to a clinic and a doctor confirmed that she had been raped," said Captain Jabulani Mdletshe in an interview with the South African Press Agency (SAPA). The child did not remember when and what time the rape took place, yet she did remember that her uncle called her into his room and told her to take off her clothes. he then forced himself onto her. It is not the first child rape in South Africa. Am official police statistics , 50 children were raped every day in 2005. NGO Rape Crisis says that these figures are incorrect, because one in every nine rapes in South Africa is reported. South Africa rape crisis is often blamed on the so-called virgin myth. However, experts have said that the virgin-myth - men cleansing themselves from HIV by having sex with a virgin - is a myth on its own. "If this would be indeed the case, we would see more raped children ending up with HIV," said a doctor working at Tygerberg Children's hospital in Cape Town. "Rape, especially when the victim is a child increases the risk of transmission - simply because of the violent nature of the act. The virus not only enters the body via mucus tissue in for instance the cervix and vagina, but also via wounds occurring during rape. If this virgin myth were true, we would see more - much more children infected. "I am not saying that the virgin myth does not exist, I am only saying that the problem is less prevalent then people think."