Charlene Smith
Officials of the Department of Justice and prosecutors are complaining that magistrates are refusing to prosecute cases of child abuse and rape as public scrutiny of verdicts intensifies.
One official complained that magistrates also didn’t want to participate in, or be briefed about, victim empowerment programmes being designed by a coalition of government departments, “because they say this will interfere with their objectivity”.
The complaints were aired at a special forum convened by the special director in the new sexual offence and community affairs unit in the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions, advocate Thoko Majokweni, in Pretoria this week with the country’s top prosecutors, a member of the United States FBI and an attorney of the child exploitation and obscenity section of the US Department of Justice.
Prosecutors also complained that the failure of the Department of Health to train doctors and nurses who treat abused children or raped women on how to testify in court meant many cases were lost.
The forum was convened as part of a bid by the Department of Justice to turn up the heat against rapists and child abusers.
It also became apparent during the forum that district surgeons had scant awareness of anti-HIV treatment for women or children who had been raped and were failing to pass on adequate information that could help save the life of a raped woman or child. Prosecutors at the forum expressed outrage that the government was not funding post- rape prophylaxis (anti-Aids drugs).
Prosecutors also complained that a lack of forensic staff made it difficult to obtain DNA results that positively tie an offender to a sex crime. It can take six months and more for these results. However, if the government used dyes and special scopes, used only in Kimberley at present, they would need far fewer DNA tests and the accuracy of medical examinations would leap from 10% to 85%.
Chaos in the courts saw a situation were only 7% of rape cases were prosecuted last year. Durban has 401 child abuse cases awaiting trial, while Port Elizabeth has 700 outstanding cases on the roll.
Prosecutors complained that rape survivors and abused children often have to travel long distances to courts – in Cape Town an abused child has to travel 30km from Guguletu to the Wynberg court. In Gauteng, the Northern Province and Mpumalanga distances travelled can be 300km to 400km.
However, the situation is worse in the Eastern Cape where a raped woman or child has to travel hundreds of kilometres from outlying areas because only Port Elizabeth and Umtata prosecute sexual offences cases. This in turn means that many cases fall away because survivors cannot afford the bus, train or taxi fare, the time travelled or accommodation costs to get to the court.
In the next few weeks 18 rape courts will be set up in rape hotspots nationwide, and will be fully operational by no later than April next year, as the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions throws its weight behind the fight against sexual violence.
Last year 21 000 of the 37 000 child abuse cases reported to police were sexual abuse; in all there were 65 000 rape cases of adults and children reported to police.
Christopher Avery of the FBI who helped train prosecutors on Internet crime, specifically that relating to paedophilia, said the “most important need is the desire and tenacity to be an advocate for children”.
>From next Monday a team of US lawyers and FBI agents who specialise in sex crimes will begin basic training of South African prosecutors and investigators in a range of areas, including DNA, interviewing children and adult sex offenders.
A second course will follow later in September and another in October.