Judicial Service Commission to address Mabel Jansen comments

Social media reacted after comments by Jansen, made during a private conversation on Facebook, was published on Twitter.

In the conversation with activist Gillian Schutte, Jansen said "In their culture a woman is there to pleasure them. Period. It is seen as an absolute right and a woman's consent is not required."

"I still have to meet a black girl who was not raped at about 12. I am dead serious."

Jansen also asked: “99 percent of criminal cases I hear is of black fathers/uncles/brothers raping children as young as 5 years old. Is this part of your culture?"

Schutte said the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which deals with complaints against judges, was informed about her and Jansen's conversation in 2015.

"The reason why I shared it now, again, was in the wake of the Ntokozo Qwabe incident and not tipping the waitress. There was such a huge furore against that and yet something as serious as a judge making these kinds of highly prejudicial statements in public was just ignored," Schutte said.

Jansen said her comments were taken out of context and that she referred to specific incidents of rape cases she presided over.

South Africans took to social media to voice their outrage:

Edited by Faith Daniels