Not unusual for members of the same family to be raped

Help centre Rape Crisis has said it is not unusual for two members of the same family to be raped in South Africa, it was reported on Tuesday.

"It probably happens more than you realise," director Kathleen Dey told the Cape Times.

She said that when daughters went for rape counselling, it often turned out that their mothers had also been raped at the same age.

The newspaper interviewed a family in which a mother and two of her three children were raped over a 14-year period in Philippi, Cape Town.

The mother was raped in 1999 while on her way home. In 2008, her family was sleeping when two men broke into her house and raped her daughter.

Last year, her son was raped, allegedly by his soccer coach.

Dey said fear and anxiety became predominant feelings in rape victims.

"You don't feel you have a choice. You're constantly looking for the next source of danger," she said.

According to the report, police statistics showed that 64 514 sexual offences were reported from last April to May this year.