It’s always a little ego boost when you see articles about Cape Town being one of the world’s most beautiful cities, or South Africa being a tourist hotspot on some or other list.

Then there’s making international headlines for all the wrong reasons, when South Africans collectively sit back and shudder as our names are sullied, and ‘ol Mabel Jansen knows all about that.

So has she hit the big time across the pond? Let’s first stop in at the BBC:

A white South African judge has been strongly condemned for purportedly saying on social media that rape was part of the culture of black men.
Judge Mabel Jansen said the gang-rape of babies, girls and women was seen as a “pleasurable” pastime…

Racism on social media is becoming a common feature in South Africa, and some analysts say the time for a frank conversation about how to tackle the problem has come.

The concept of the rainbow nation, established in 1994 after the end of racial segregation, seems to be coming apart at the seams. Can it be rebuilt or will the situation get worse?

That would be the pressing question – over to Sky then:

The comments were made around a year ago, but they resurfaced at the weekend in a Facebook post by Ms Schutte.

Petitions have since been launched to remove her as a judge amid a social media storm.

Local media reported that Ms Jansen was not responding to questions as her husband died on Saturday…

Political parties have rushed to condemn Ms Jansen’s remarks…

The outrage comes after a series of racism rows sparked by comments on social media.

Same old then but look, she even cracked the Daily Mail. They’re usually good for some drama:

White minority rule and legalised racism ended in South Africa in 1994…

The government intends to strengthen anti-racism laws in the wake of the rows.

Official statistics showed that 43,195 rapes were reported in South Africa between April 2014 and March 2015, though most rapes are not reported to police.

Africa Check, a fact-checking project devised by but independent of the AFP Foundation, recently dismissed reports that a woman or child was raped every 26 seconds in the country.

The project said the number of rapes committed each year in South Africa could not be accurately estimated due to lack of research.

Sadly those stats speak for themselves, no need to ham that up much. Finally let’s check in with the Telegraph:

[Mabel] said the “poverty etc” created by apartheid was “largely to blame” for South Africa’s widely-acknowledged sexual violence epidemic but added: “Fact: Apartheid existed. Fact: Black children and women are raped and abused and beaten and mistreated by black men to an extent that is so sickening one cannot even cope with it. And that is a FACT”…

Mrs Jansen’s comments, which were made in May last year but came to light when they were shared by a social justice activist, have sparked outrage in South Africa where social media has played a role in bringing to the fore racist attitudes in some quarters and hosting passionate debates about them.

‘Passionate debates’ is definitely a euphemism.

Way to go Mabel, represent yo.

[sources:bbc&sky&dailymail&telegraph]