White South African judge sparks outrage after claiming 'rape is black culture' in online rant

A white South African high court judge is the subject of the latest in a series of race rows in the country after she said that black South African men regarded rape as a cultural right.

South African judge Mabel Jansen

According to Telegraph UK Mabel Jansen, a high court judge for the past three years who works in Pretoria, told commenters on a Facebook thread that "99 per cent" of her cases were "black fathers/uncles/brothers raping children as young as 5 years old", then asked one poster: "Is this part of your culture?"

She claimed that she was “yet to meet a black girl who wasn’t raped by the age of 12”. 
She said the

“poverty etc” created by apartheid was “largely to blame” for South Africa’s widely-acknowledged sexual violence epidemic but added: "Fact: Apartheid existed. Fact: Black children and women are raped and abused and beaten and mistreated by black men to an extent that is so sickening one cannot even cope with it. And that is a FACT."

In a series of comments, Mrs Jansen said that black mothers were “so brain-washed that they tell the children that it is the fathers’ birth right to be the first”.  “In their culture (black men) a woman is there to pleasure them. Period.

It is seen as an absolute right and a woman’s consent is not required,” she wrote.  “Murder is also not biggy. And gang rapes of baby, daughter and mother a pleasurable pass time.” She was challenged over her comments by Gillian Schuttel, the activist that publicised her comments, who suggested that her experience was directly related to the field she worked in and was not applicable to society more broadly.

“The majority of black fathers, husbands and uncles do not rape 5 year olds,” she wrote.
Mrs Jansen responded: “One would believe not. You are more than welcome to come and look at my files. It will be a great eye-opener. Apparently sex is simply to be had when required. Apparently it is not regarded as rape but the exertion of a male's right.” 

Since the comments were made public, there have been calls for Mrs Jansen to be suspended.  The Black Lawyers Association said the country’s judiciary had to be trusted that they would “treat all people as equal before the law”.

It called for her to be removed from her post immediately and for all her rape and murder cases where black people were either defendants or victims to be reviewed.

“For a judge to hold a view that black people are, in terms of their culture, rapists and murderers is so unacceptable that she cannot be found to be fit and proper person to continue to occupy a position of judge,” said its president Lutendo Benedict Sigogo.

The country’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, also waded into the row, referring the judge to the Judicial Services Council which appoints them.  The JSC said it would respond to the row on Tuesday morning.