[Update: These rapes turned out to be a HOAX!]
Jackrolling, the recreational abduction and gang rape of women, is widespread in South African townships.
Now Jackrolling has come to the UK via some South African immigrants (add it to the shame register along with ritual “muti” murders, child torture and bushmeat).
We UK based South Africans have been fretting for some time about the possibility South African criminals getting into the UK and causing mayhem. This is just about the worst case scenario.
Police seek sex attackers – The Times
Women warned after city is hit by rape gang – The Guardian
Some quotes on Jackrolling after the jump.
“This rather terrifying crime is basically gang rape but seen as a leisure activity for men, like alcohol or playing cards…As a community leader told a human rights factfinder, “jackrolling is not a crime, it is just a game” UNHCHR
“In a…survey conducted among 1,500 schoolchildren in the Soweto township, a quarter of all the boys interviewed said that “jackrolling”–a South African term for recreational gang rape–was fun.” BBC
“The term ‘jackrolling’ was coined to describe the forceful abduction of young women by a gang calling themselves the Jackrollers. The gang operated during 1987/88 in the Diepkloof area under the leadership of Jeffrey Brown. Abduction and rape were specific features of the gang’s activities but as this practice spread and became fashionable, anyone who participated could be termed a jackroller (Mokwena, 1991).
Mary Mabaso, a community activist in Soweto, traces the origins of jackrolling to the unrest in Soweto that began on June 16 1976, and lead to the closure of Soweto schools later that year. By the time schools reopened, many students were too old to return to school, having passed the age limit of 22 set by the National Party government. Unqualified for many jobs and unable to obtain work, some of these young men turned to gang activity.
Resentful of those who continued their schooling, some gangs began targeting young women at school. Rape was seen as a means of making young women pregnant – and so effectively ending their education. Young women were thus reduced to the same circumstances as the gangsters.
Steve Mokwena’s (1991) research supports and extends Mary Mabaso’s explanations. He states that many victims were originally chosen by the jackrollers because they seemed unattainable. Such women were termed amahaiza (snobs) as they seemed to enjoy better class and status than the gangsters. Rape was then deliberately used to keep women within their (jackroller designated) place, as well as to destroy women’s opportunities.” Roots of a Rape Crisis
“The word “jackroll” was coined to refer to the forceful abduction of women in black townships by a specific gang called the “Jackrollers” which operated in the years 1987/1988 in the Diepkloof area of Soweto. The original Jackroller gang was made up of a tight network of less than ten associates, and was led by Jeff Brown, who quickly earned the “status” of the most feared man in the township. The most notable practices of the Jackrollers were rape and abduction, car theft and bank robbery. As the abduction of women became fashionable however, anyone who did it could be called a jackroller, and “jackroll” became a commonly used verb in the township vocabulary. The emergence of jackrolling coincided with the increase in township based youth violence and a dramatic rise in youth unemployment.
There are a number of aspects which make jackrolling different from ordinary rape. Firstly, it is primarily a youth phenomenon. Although rape is committed by males of all ages, jackrolling is committed by people who are still fairly young. Secondly, it is almost always committed in the open, and the rapists do not make attempts to conceal their identity. As a matter of fact, it seems that part of the exercise is to be as public as possible about the offence so as to earn respect. Most incidents of jackroll are committed in places like shebeens (informal township bars), picnic spots, schools, nightclubs and in the streets. Jackroll is often committed by roving gangs of armed youths.
A peculiar characteristic of jackroll is that it is seen as a sport of the tough gangsters. There is in fact a common township saying that: “Jackroll is not a crime it is just a game”.9 As one commentator points out: “It has become a male fashion, that is, a popular form of male behaviour indulged in by even young school boys…The tough and ‘manly’ jackrollers become their role models.” Gang Rape and the Culture of Violence in South Africa
