Reports of separate incidents involving a six-year-old girl raped in a restaurant bathroom and a teenager violated in hospital by a fake doctor shortly after giving birth have sent shock waves throughout South Africa.
While the country is known for its high rates of sexual assault, the nature of the two cases that took place this week have proven particularly appalling.
In the first incident, on Saturday, a child was allegedly raped in a restaurant bathroom in the capital Pretoria while her mother was right outside in the dining area, local media reported on Wednesday.
Police arrested a 20-year-old man over the incident, News24 reported, and he was charged with rape.
In Eastern Cape province on Monday, a 17-year-old was raped in hospital, just hours after giving birth, by a man posing as a doctor, The Sowetan newspaper reported on Wednesday.
A suspect was also been arrested in that case, according to the paper.
The two stories were carried by most media, and popular radio talk show host Eusebius McKaiser railed against the situation in South Africa on his show and on social media, saying on Facebook that "South Africa is no country for children".
Police statistics released earlier this month showed that rape was up 0.5 per cent, with 40,035 cases recorded in the last year compared to 39,828 over the previous year.
