free’ in the Eastern Cape
Peter Dickson
The Port Elizabeth metropole, described by Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete last month as “the rape capital of South Africa”, is to be the target of a top-level police research project into why less than 10% of the area’s rapists are caught and jailed.
>From January 1998 to June last year, of the 867 reported rapes of girls under 17 in the Eastern Cape, 658 were in Port Elizabeth and 208 in adjacent Uitenhage. Of these there were only 67 convictions (a success rate of 7,7%) from the less than 50% that went to court.
In another 1E479 cases involving women over 18, 986 were in Port Elizabeth and 493 in Uitenhage – with only 65 convictions (a success rate of 4%) of the 44% that reached the courts.
Taking in case docket analyses and interviews by Eastern Cape police who will also report to a concerned Minister of Justice Penuell Maduna, the move follows an open letter last week to the police and national and provincial governments by United Democratic Movement MP for Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage Cedric Frolick. Frolick’s letter followed Tshwete’s “horrifying” reply to a written question put to him in Parliament two weeks ago on the extent of rape in the metropole.
Frolick’s letter reads: “I am left with the impression that rapists in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage are freely roaming the streets, with very little fear of being caught, or in the unlikely event of being caught, that they would be successfully prosecuted.
“A total of 800 reported rapists of minors in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage are still walking free.
“The desperate state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. The reasons for this situation are a shortage of staff, lack of proper training, and insufficient co- operation between the [police] and the Department of Justice.
“The justice department owes the community of Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage an explanation for the low rate of guilty verdicts.”
Frolick has called on Maduna – who says the matter is receiving his attention – to personally intervene and establish a joint effort with Tshwete, Eastern Cape Safety and Transport MEC Dennis Neer, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi and provincial commissioner Wilson Toba.
Toba’s deputy, Monyano Noqayi, says the “unacceptable low conviction rate in court” will form a major part of the research project into the high rape rate. The project, however, will “unfortunately” take some time to finalise.