Police and women in Alexandra are working together to combat rape in the township, writes Lizeka Mda
Put yourself in Josina Matangala’s shoes and you’ll want to scream. One Saturday night two months ago, a man she had seen around Alexandra township burst into her shack where she was sleeping with her two- year-old daughter and proceeded to rape her the entire night while the little girl cried helplessly.
Neighbours heard her calls for help but the man shouted from the door threatening to shoot anyone who dared to come near.
In the morning she asked neighbours Portia Mongake and Mathapelo Moloi to accompany her to the police station. The policeman who attended to them could not understand Matangala who only speaks a Mozambican Shangaan dialect, but would not deal with Mongake and Moloi either. He referred her to the clinic eight blocks away.
When the three women arrived at the clinic, it was before 7am. The nurses told them to wait outside as the 24-hour clinic was still being cleaned. When they were allowed in, the nurses told Matangala to wait as she had to be seen by a doctor. A doctor arrived but said she would only see children and Matangala should wait for another doctor.
The second doctor arrived at about 11am, examined Matangala and sent her back to the police station with the medical report. After her statement was taken, she was told to wait outside for a red Golf whose driver would arrest the rapist.
By 2pm the car had not arrived and Mongake and Moloi were restless. They had left their homes at the crack of dawn and were both worried that their men would not take kindly to their long absence. Moloi went home.
An hour later Mongake inquired about the delay and was given a phone number for the Johannesburg police’s domestic violence, child abuse and sexual offences unit, in whose hands the matter now rested.
When the two women arrived home, it was to find Moloi a bloodied mess. Her husband had beaten her up for her long absence. Mongake’s boyfriend was agitated that the needs of a rape victim had taken precedence over his lunch.
“Since when are you the magistrate?” he demanded of his lover, who went down on her knees to beg forgiveness. He spared her, that time.
Matangala did not phone the police. She did not know who to ask for or what to say. Anyway, she did not have the money to make the phone call. She regretted having “made a fuss” about the rape in the first place, because all the help she got for her troubles was a packet of painkillers the doctor gave her. She has not heard from the police since.
These hardships are the reality for the women of Alexandra township in Johannesburg, and they are sick of it.
Last Saturday 200 of them attended a workshop organised by Agisanang Domestic Abuse Prevention and Training (Adapt), the Alexandra Community Law Clinic and the Alexandra Women’s Forum to bring women and the police together to find solutions to the serious problem of rape and other forms of violence against women in the township.
Also present were representatives from the Safety and Security Secretariat, the Gauteng Department of Safety and Security, and several non-governmental organisations.
The tone was set by Superintendent Lesetja Mothiba of the Alexandra police station who gave a critical review of police attitudes and conduct as a huge obstacle for victims of violence in Alexandra trying to get justice.
He noted that rape cases are referred elsewhere, to the domestic violence, child abuse and sexual offences unit in Braamfontein for investigation and prosecution, which minimises the role of the local police station. The unit serves 20 police stations in Johannesburg and is not as responsive as they would like.
Also, the majority of the investigating officers do not know Alexandra, he says. They do not understand that with the yard system, one address can have as many as 12 families.
“Cases are withdrawn because the investigating officer cannot find the complainant.”
Mothiba committed the police station to get training in gender sensitivity for everyone who works in the charge office. This week he is sending out a circular to all the police in the station that rape is to be treated as a serious problem, and its victims with extreme sensitivity.
Rape victims will no longer be sent to the clinic to get medical examinations, but will be driven there by a police officer who will also take them home. Many women who report rape just return home after being told to go somewhere else. At least one woman was raped again while making this journey between the police station and the clinic.
A long-term solution to this segmented service is to make the clinic a one-stop centre for victims. A police officer would be at the clinic 24 hours a day to take a statement from the woman, and she would also get counselling.
The women resolved to form a forum to get themselves educated in legal procedure and their rights as far as the system of justice is concerned. A committee will review rapes reported at the police station on a weekly basis and verify the accuracy of police reports with the victims themselves to make sure that the victims get the service they deserve.
As a kind of police reservist force, the women will get training in conflict resolution and provide a support group for rape victims, going as far as accompanying them to court.
The message from the women of Alexandra is clear. They are tired of living in fear.