interdict’
Ferial Haffajee
All that Thembi Zikhali needed to enforce her interdict was proof that it existed. Because it is a court order, police are compelled to enforce it.
“Police have no discretion,” says lawyer Joanne Fedler of the legal advocacy trust, Tshwaranang.
The domestic violence Bill, a watershed piece of draft legislation, could curb police discretion even further.
Because of endemic problems with getting police to enforce interdicts, the new Bill recommends that penalties be imposed on the police.
The failure to arrest an offender or failure to inform a woman of her rights may see officers come before the courts.
Says Fedler: “We [the law commission] debated about the merits of a reward or punishment system.
“There have been huge problems in the past so unfortunately we had to follow the latter.”
Lisa Vetten of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation says police enforcement of interdicts is varied … some good, some bad.
“There must be a massive information drive to ensure that everybody understands the complex interdict system. Women must know how to access and use it. The police must be trained to enforce them,” she says.
Vetten says although there are police guidelines for investigating different categories of crime, one has yet to be penned for helping them deal with domestic violence.
She adds that there should be other ways for women to enforce the interdict because many women do not want their spouses arrested.
One option is what Vetten calls “a graded set of responses”, where arrest is the last option and counselling and mediation are offered first.