One in three South African men admit to rape, survey finds

More than one in three South African men questioned in a survey admitted to rape, the latest evidence of South Africa's violent culture. Researchers found that more than three in four men said they had perpetrated violence against women. Nearly nine in 10 men believe that a woman should obey her husband – and almost six in 10 women also agreed with the statement. South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape in the world. In 2009, a survey by the Medical Research Council (MRC) found that 28% of men in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces said they had raped a woman or girl. A new MRC study in Gauteng, the country's wealthiest province, found that 37.4% of men admitted having committed a rape, while 25.3% of women said they had been raped. The survey questioned 511 women and 487 men, of whom 90% were black and 10% white. Some 53.9% of men and 29.8% of women agreed that "a man should have the final say in all family matters", while 37.3% of men and 23.2% of women supported the view that "a woman needs her husband's permission to do paid work". Asked about sexual entitlement in marriage, only 55% of both men and women said they thought "it is possible for a woman to be raped by her husband". Some 38.7% of men and 29.3% of women thought that "a woman cannot refuse to have sex with her husband" and 22.3% of men and 8.8% of women felt that "if a wife does something wrong, her husband has the right to punish her". The survey also found that 32% of men and women agreed that "in any rape case, one would have to question whether the victim is promiscuous", while 20.1% of men and 15.6% of women said that "in some rape cases, women want it to happen".