Marion Edmunds
`I WANT my rape courts,” bellowed the exasperated attorney general of the Western Cape, Frank Kahn, down the phone line this week. “We’ve been waiting for four years and nothing has been done.”
Earlier this week, Kahn hit out at the Department of Justice in his annual report tabled in Parliament for its failure to act, particularly in setting up special courts for sexual offenders.
He has been crusading for special courts for rape victims since 1994, and despite having set up a successful pilot court in Wynberg and carried out in-depth research and consultation on the relevant issues, his requests for more rape courts in the Western Cape appear to have been ignored.
Kahn said in his report: “It is obvious that there is a critical need for more special courts. Some preliminary work with regard to arranging suitable accommodation has already been done in Mitchells Plain, Paarl, Parow and Athlone.
“My pleas have been ignored for so long that I have become cynical about the department’s commitment in this regard. Promises only appear to surface when it becomes expedient to do so.”
The Western Cape is the rape capital of the country: it has 6 000 rapes a year, 180 of which were dealt with last year by the Wynberg court, which provides special facilities for rape victims whose trauma is usually ignored or compounded by the judicial system.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said special rape courts were in the pipeline but the department was obliged to await further funding before setting them up.
He could not say whether the department
had budgeted for special rape courts or whether donations were expected from sources beyond government.
Kahn’s report is the most hard-hitting of the reports tabled by the provincial attorneys general this week, directly criticising the state’s failure to streamline and improve the judicial system. In his conclusion, he said: “Human rights without effective law enforcement is as bad as law and order without human rights …
“Whereas strategic planning is essential for change, the government should guard against ignoring the basic needs and tools of a good criminal justice system in the pursuit of a new vision. Until affordability makes greater changes possible, government should perhaps heed the American saying: `If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ “
Kahn was the only attorney general to call for special rape courts. He was also the only one to suggest that “gay-bashing cases” should be given more prominence in a bid to clamp down on this sort of assault.