“There should be clear guidelines on what kind of questions lawyers can ask a rape victim. Questions about the size of the penis show the level of ignorance from the lawyer’s side.”
Dlamini-Ngobese said the WMACA commended Zondi for her courage and how she retold her story in court.
“We hope this will give others courage to retell their stories‚” she said.
Miranda Jordan‚ the director of WMACA‚ added that the questioning of rape victims was often demeaning‚ abusive and judgemental.
“This could lead to secondary trauma for the victim. As much as it is understood that the defence strategy is to discredit the evidence of the victim it is important that the lawyers are sensitive to questioning that might be in our view demeaning and insensitive and add to the shame and trauma the victim has already been subjected to.
“To be specific to the Omotoso case‚ the questions about the length and size of the private parts of the accused are deemed by us to be abusive and pointless. There is no way a rape victim could have that kind of specific information about an event as traumatic and demeaning as rape‚” Jordan said.