It is a hot day in Johannesburg, the last day of work before the summer vacation. December 2001. From the central foyer of the offices where I work I can see into the inner city: shards of light on the glass building shaped like a diamond in the foreground; the new taxi rank, one of four going up in the city for the 800 000 commuters passing through every day; the Market Theatre; the Mandela Bridge starting to take shape. I am reading the Sowetan, South Africa's largest-selling daily newspaper. On the front page, a full-colour, full-page photograph of Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, ready to spar for the soccer cup at the weekend. On page 2, the In Brief column offers snippets:

R21 000 for baby Tshepang

A non-governmental organization, the Coalition for Children's Rights (CCR), yesterday handed over R21 000 collected from the public for nine-month-old baby Tshepang, who was raped and sodomised by six men in October.

‘Fire’ held over child support

Sundowns star midfielder Joel ‘Fire’ Masilela is expected to appear in the Mamelodi Magistrate's Court today after he was arrested for alleged failure to pay maintenance.

The first snippet refers to a baby rape. The victim, one of many since the start of the year, is the youngest baby yet to be raped and the case is the one that has most upset the public. The second, detailing the arrest of a well-known soccer player for failure to pay maintenance to his ex-wife, reveals the law in action, protecting the rights of women, bringing to book men who try to get away without paying child support.

Two snippets, unfolding along two South African trajectories: violent histories of the body, and rights which have come, though intermittently, and in important redemptive pockets, to be protected by the most liberal Constitution in the world. As I turn to page 4, another In Brief snippet tells me that ‘Gauteng MEC for safety and liaison Nomvula Mokonyane and social welfare MEC Angie Motshekga are expected to address hundreds of men who will be marching against children and women abuse and rape in Ivory Park, North Rand, at the weekend.’ If this is one kind of action taken in relation to the dramatic conundrum of men, women and girls’ bodies that is unfolding, page 7 reveals a quite different kind.