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released the preliminary census results held in August.
According to Zimstat the national population continues to rise at an annual growth rate of 1,1 percent, rising from 11,6 million in 2002 to nearly 13 million in 2012.

As the election days draw near, the Registrar-General also had to inform politicians and interested stakeholders on the state of the voters’ roll — a very contentious document in Zimbabwe’s elections.
There are slightly over 5,5 million registered voters with the figure expected to rise when the voter registration exercise is launched on January 3 next year.

The judiciary also released its end-of-year figures: divorce cases and civil lawsuits were on the increase in 2012. According to Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa, there were 18 000 civil cases this year, compared to 12 759 in 2011.

Interestingly, a number of senior government officials, cabinet ministers included, were part of this figure.

Then, there are the usual holiday accident figures. It is now a given that during public holidays, people should perish due to road accidents.

According to Wednesday’s report by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, 127 people had already died in road accidents since December 15, “marking a 100 percent increase in deaths compared to the same period last year. In just ten days it has become one of the bloodiest festive seasons in recent years.”

The final figure I’ll refer to regards child sexual assault and molestation (child rape and/or sexual offence).

According to recent reports by the Zimbabwe Republic Police in a period of 10 months (January to October 2012), 2 450 children were raped countrywide.

In a breakdown of figures by the police, neighbours were responsible for 41 percent of the rape cases.

Indeed, our lovely and kind-hearted neighbours whom we trust with anything including our own children have also raped some of these 2 450 children.

Meanwhile, relatives whom we bend backwards and forwards for, as we try to please them, were responsible for 27 percent of the 2 450 child rape cases in those ten months. What are the figures for the remaining two months, considering the average number of children raped per month?

When such a shocking statistic is released, a figure that touches us all in various ways just like the GDP in the economy, how are we supposed to react, although we did not? How do people make sense of such sickening acts, and more critically, how do people protect their children from these marauding beasts — all of them people known to them?

Is anger adequate, and how much anger? If they ignore, is that a solution to a problem that seems to be getting out of hand? If the nation does not act on these numbers, is it an indirect admission that it has failed the children, failed their future and the future, and it is no different from those that sexually abused them?

Lee Madigan and Nancy Gamble have a book that says so much about this kind of attitude: “The Second Rape: Society’s Continued Betrayal of the Victim”.

In a few days’ time, we start the new year. Before we crossover, how many children have already become part of the statistics awaiting release in 2013?

But, dear reader, I bring this issue to our attention in my final installment in 2012 because I have seen so much activism expended in areas that have nothing to write home about.

Some work has been done on child sexual offenses, but how much, if the figures continue to rise? How many offenders are behind bars? As the last session of Parliament winds down its business before the harmonised elections, is it happy that it stood for the rights of children against sexual offenders?

Some of these paedophiles are now using modern technologies to lure children into their ludicrous acts. What are our legislators doing about e-child sexual molestation because it is already happening?

I also have a number of unanswered questions, but more specifically I ask why as a nation we were unmoved by this figure: 2 450 children sexually molested in 10 months, which translates to 245 children per month. And, these are figures of reported cases! What would it be like if all cases were reported?

Zimbabwe, with a population of almost 13 million people, is not moved by the fact that 2 450 of its children — its future — have been sexually molested, but as I write India, which has one of the largest populations in the world (1,22 billion), has seen violent protests in the past few days after the gang rape of a female medical student. And the authorities were forced to act.

Why are we so different? I am not saying that we resort to daily protests to ensure that justice is realised, but with social media so handy, is it just a tool used to castigate government?

Many years ago, I listened to the late Jabulani Mangena on the then ZBC Radio 2’s “Chakafukidza dzimba matenga”, reading a letter from a woman seeking assistance. This was a broken-hearted mother, wife and sister as well who was torn in-between, resulting in her being unable to make rational decisions.

She did not want to go against her family and the norm, but she was also hurting.
In the letter, she said that her unemployed young brother who was living with her family while he was looking for a job was sexually molesting their baby, who was still in her diapers.

The woman wrote that each time her brother returned home from the job search, he would ask to play with the baby in his bedroom. What always amazed her was that, moments later, the baby would start crying, and he would give her back.

She said that she finally realised that her own brother was in fact sexually molesting her baby when the baby cried beyond the norm. She could not stop crying until they decided to undress her, because they thought that she was not well. Then they realised that her napkin was bloody, and the blood was coming from the baby’s private parts.

The baby was taken to hospital, and the doctors confirmed that there had been some penetration, using a male organ and/or a finger.

In short, she had been sexually molested. All the days she used to cry while in the hands of a person, who was not only supposed to baby-sit her, but also protect her, the direct opposite was happening.

He was inflicting pain on her.
Reality is sometimes stranger than fiction. This is the fourth time I am writing about rape. In my August 19, 2010 installment titled “Rape: An issue for Copac” I was of the view that by now Zimbabwe would have a new constitution, which would plug in all the loopholes, so that rape offenders are not allowed to walk scot-free.
But, we are yet to have the draft constitution approved.

There were many issues in the draft that became major talking points. As I write, there are 30 sticky issues where political parties have to come to an agreement.

I hope to God that children’s rights and dealing with child abusers and child sex offenders is one of those issues.

When the children’s future is robbed, when human beings lose their sense of normalcy and inflict so much pain leaving scars, how do we as a nation hope that these children will heal?

When we tell them to be survivors and not victims, how can they be survivors when every day more are added to their number?

Why do we also seem like we are protecting the perpetrators of these heinous crimes when we don’t stand up as a nation and say, “Enough!”

Finally, why do we as a nation feel very normal to crossover into the New Year when 2 450 of our children were raped in a period of 10 months? What magical figure does the nation need before it speaks out about rape?

I noted that in the Kingdom of Swaziland, girls are being advised against wearing clothes that lure men, clothes that also make it easy for them to be rape victims.

What kind of clothes were these 2 450 children wearing which lured these sexual predators to rape them?

Movie actor Brad Pitt has said: “Let us be the ones who say we do not accept that a child dies every three seconds simply because he does not have the drugs you and I have. Let us be the ones to say we are not satisfied that your place of birth determines your right for life. Let us be outraged, let us be loud, let us be bold.”

We can do the same with child sexual molestation.
Happy New Year!