Hundreds of South African women took to the streets yesterday calling for an end to sexual harassment after a young woman was assaulted by taxi drivers for wearing a miniskirt.

The demonstrators marched to the Johannesburg taxi rank where the attack took place, demanding action from the Government and for taxi associations to punish those responsible for such acts. Minibus taxis are notorious for packing in as many passengers as possible and for their poor safety record. Women passengers are often exposed to taunts, jeers and drunken sexual advances.

In the latest incident Nwabisa Ngcukana, 25, who was travelling from her Soweto home to work, at a bar in the suburb of Sandton, was set upon by taxi operators. They stripped her and sexually assaulted her as “punishment” for being what they said was indecently dressed.

“I hated the taxis and comments and leers, but nothing too bad ever happened until this,” she said. “I was getting off a taxi to change to another one when they started whistling, yelling and shouting . . . they started pulling at the dress and then it all began . . . There were dozens of them. I fought all the time but it quickly moved to another level.”

Ms Ngcukana was paraded naked around the rank and while onlookers jeered, beer was poured over her. The incident has highlighted violence against women in South Africa, which has one of the highest incidents of rape in the world.

Redi Direko, a radio talk show host, led yesterday’s march. Dressed in a miniskirt, orange strap-top and high-heel sandals, she said: “While I was growing up, this sort of thing was commonplace. It is time to end all this. Drivers need to be taught how to behave. There is no dress code for women who frequent the taxi rank and we say to the drivers, ‘Mind your job’.”

Nearly 23,000 women were raped in the six months to the end of September, according to official statistics. Women’s rights groups say that only one in nine attacks is reported. Ms Ngcukana said: “I was traumatised but determined not to let it go.”

Women activists blame senior African National Congress leaders for not helping to change the way women are treated. They point to the rape trial of Jacob Zuma, president of the ANC, who was acquitted in May 2006, but said in court that he knew from the way a woman sat if she wanted sex.

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