I have huge respect for the work the MRC do. It's an important study. There is no doubt that South Africa's rape rate is out of control, that our society as a whole has deeply worrying, fundamentally damaged attitudes towards women.

This study is indicative of those attitudes and a devastating problem in South Africa which urgently needs to be addressed.

But it's not representative of the whole country. It was a study of 1738 men in KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape, only two out of nine provinces in a country of 48 million people (of which about 48% are men) with incredible cultural and socio-economic diversity and 11 national languages.

The study (you can read the executive summary here: http://www.mrc.ac.za/) seems to be sound, including a mix of men from different socio-economic backgrounds and in rural and urban areas.

Some of the data is expected (men who experienced trauma or abuse in childhood are more likely to rape) other results were surprising and disturbing (men with a secondary education are more likely to rape than those who are uneducated).

As I said, no doubt that it's an important study.

But I'm very, very uncomfortable that we're extrapolating the results of 1738 men to +/- 24 million.

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian Online (http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-06-18-quarter-of-men-in-south-africa-admit-rape) The head of the study, professor Rachel Jewkes said "that while the survey had only focussed on two provinces, there was no evidence to suggest the findings would be different if it had been run countrywide."

Respectfully, without taking away from the significance of these devastating findings of this sample group, I'd like to see further study in other areas of the country.

In the meantime, I'd like to see a call to action from government, from society to address our warped values as South Africans, the terrible misogyny, the way we assault our women and children, because even if these stats have been overblown, it's still our burden, our shame and if we do nothing then we are all responsible.