South Africa has extremely high rates of sexual violence, and rape has been used in the country as a
way to “punish” women who do not conform to normative ideals of femininity in different ways
over time. This report offers a critique of the terms ‘corrective rape’ and ‘curative rape’ and argues for careful and nuanced application of the concept of ‘hate crimes’. The report forms part of the research
conducted for the Violence and Transition project and focuses on an interview conducted by my co‐
researcher, Chiedza Chagutah, with Sibongile, a woman who was raped by a man close by to her
home in a township just outside of the city of Cape Town. Sibongile’s account complicates and
widens existing definitions of hate crimes, given that she was raped by someone who knew her well
and whom she believed to be her friend. While the report pays close attention to a particular,
individual life history and experience of trauma, it also argues for understanding gender‐based
violence as structural violence.
