Plight of families twice betrayed

A mother will face the father of her three children in the Pinetown Magistrate's Court today to explain how she and the children have been condemned to poverty by the jailing of their breadwinner for repeatedly raping their seven-year-old daughter.

The 29-year-old woman from Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, is one of "tens of thousands" of mothers left to cope alone after their husbands or partners have been jailed for raping their children.

The Department of Social Development, child-rights activists and researchers say the woman's plight is "extremely common".

Some fathers, arrested for less serious crimes, are sentenced to weekends behind bars to allow them to work during the week to support their families.

"I never imagined my family would be in this situation. My child is struggling to cope and I am battling to keep a roof over our heads," the 29-year-old said.

"And the person who put us in this situation is someone who is supposed to have protected us."

At the beginning of last month, when her partner pleaded guilty to raping their daughter for more than a year, the rent was overdue, food was running out and the prospect of her finding a job was slim. Her partner, a diesel technician, had been the breadwinner and she cared for their three-year-old son, who suffers from cerebral palsy.

Her mother has been helping her with the rent and friends have donated food.

Jackie Branfield, founder of Operation Bobbi Bear, an organisation fighting for the rights of sexually abused children, said the fear of loss of income was one of the reasons rapes by fathers and breadwinners were not reported to the police.

"I applaud this mother for seeking justice for her daughter. She is a hero," Branfield said.

Childline's marketing and fundraising manager, Joan van Niekerk, said most cases of sexual abuse were perpetrated by a family member but the fear of financial instability was one of the reasons for it not being reported.

"The child may even see herself as the reason for the financial hardships caused by the breadwinner being jailed," said Van Niekerk.

Lisa Vetten, a research associate at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, said the financial struggle was "incredibly common".

"It is so common that you have magistrates trying to be creative in their sentencing of offenders who are breadwinners, handing down sentences to certain types of offenders such as periodic imprisonment, so that during the week they work but at weekends are imprisoned.

"While this can be done in some cases, the problem is it cannot be done for cases such as sexual assault."

She said imprisonment of breadwinners was previously addressed by the state maintenance grant system, which has been replaced by the child support grant.

"In terms of the maintenance grant, if your breadwinner was imprisoned you could claim a grant from the government."

Vetten said that although child support grants took families out of destitution they nevertheless struggled to survive.

She said high unemployment among women and lower pay ensured that they remained economically dependent on men.

Department of Social Development spokesma n Lumka Oliphant said the department's Victim Empowerment programme provided protected accommodation and skills development for mothers to increase their chances of finding a job or otherwise gaining an income . - Additional reporting by Graeme Hosken