The nine-month-old baby girl from Kimberley in the Northern Cape who survived a gang rape has undergone a full hysterectomy and will require further surgery to repair intestinal damage, a hospital spokesperson said on Friday.
The Louisville baby was raped, allegedly by six Upington men last weekend after she was left unattended by her 16-year-old mother.
"Psychologically we do not know what the impact of her ordeal will be, but she is smiling at all the attention she is getting from all the hospital personnel. She had undergone a full hysterectomy and she suffered extensive damage to her colon and anus as well.
"There will be several more operations to repair her intestines," the spokeswoman said.
The six men, aged between 22 and 66, appeared in the Kimberley magistrate's court on charges of rape and indecent assault on Monday.
Kimberley police are still trying to confirm the rape of a three-year-old girl, allegedly by her grandfather, police Inspector Chantel Manuel said on Friday.
The girl was also admitted to the hospital earlier this week and was expected to undergo surgery on Monday.
In the eastern Free State two men from Tweeling appeared in court on Thursday after allegedly raping their 14-month-old niece on Tuesday. The girl also underwent surgery to repair internal damage and is recovering at home.
On Friday police in the Northern Province reported that a four-year-old girl from the former Venda had died of injuries she sustained four months ago when she was raped, allegedly by her 35-year-old father, at her home at Tshirolwe.
She died in the Mankweng Hospital near Pietersburg on Wednesday, Captain Ailwei Mushavhanamadi said.
The man is to appear in court on December 28 on a charge of rape and murder.
Meanwhile, the African National Congress Women's League and the ANC Women's Caucus on Friday called on the country's courts to implement a minimum sentence which provided life sentences for men who raped children and babies knowing they (the men) were HIV-positive.
ANC caucus chairperson Lulu Xingwana said the superstition that HIV/Aids could be cured by raping babies, children and virgins was an "ignorant, unfounded and perverse belief".
"It is horrifying to learn that adult family members including fathers are amongst those alleged to have committee these atrocities ...mostly the alleged rapes are committed by fathers, brothers, sons, grandfathers and uncles whom they look to for care and protection."
She said these atrocities were linked to the abuse of alcohol and drugs, beliefs that women were sub-human and to superstitions surrounding HIV/Aids.
Police earlier this week said that in the 18 months since January 2000 almost 32 000 reports of child rape and sexual attacks on children under the age of 18 occurred countrywide.
P.S. Baby rapes are common in South Africa. Apprentely, the locals believe raping a baby cures AIDS.
Source
original source but long since changed. 
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