Dispatches: The Lost Girls of South Africa
Channel 4, Sunday 23 May 9:00pm - 10:35pm
Statistically, this harrowing film claims, a girl born in South Africa has more chance of being raped than of completing her education. In a country in the grip of lawlessness and poverty, it looks at the misery of a handful of pitifully young girls, all raped by family or neighbours in their teeming, filthy township outside Port Elizabeth. Ntombi was raped in 2006 when she was seven, and when she was filmed, she is recovering from a recent gang rape. It's hard to watch as she talks tearfully of her ordeal: "I pretended to play afterwards, I was scared my mother would smack me." The Childline charity in South Africa does its best, but the problem is huge and the resources are tiny.
Radio Times reviewer - Alison Graham
VIDEO Plus+: 55449762
SubtitledRadiotimes
