Sandy Nefolovhodwe* is a satisfied mother — as satisfied as a mother whose child was raped can be. Her husband raped his mentally challenged 11-year-old daughter. But now justice has been done.
Holding the hand of her smiling daughter they walk out of the Sexual Offences Court in Sibasa, in the Thohoyandou area, having heard the magistrate condemn her husband’s actions as heinous and refer the judgement to the high court for the maximum sentence.
”I will be very glad if he can go to jail for life. He thought she is mental [challenged] and will not say anything,” she says.
But her husband did not bargain for the dedicated volunteers, prosecutors and policemen who work in the Thulamela municipal district in rural Venda to ensure that no man gets away with rape or sexual abuse in their community.
Venda has been called the rape capital of South Africa and is also hard hit by abuse and family violence directed against women and children. Currently an average of 40 rape survivors a month have reported to the Thohoyandou Trauma Centre at the Tshilidzini hospital since it opened in September last year. Sixty percent are 16 or younger.
The Mail & Guardian reported in October that in 2000 in South Africa only 7% of rape cases resulted in conviction and 40% involved children. A confidential government anti-rape strategy report said the criminal justice system’s response to rape confirms that it is largely a risk-free activity for the perpetrators and that many rape survivors have no confidence in the system.
In Thohoyandou this is not the case.
The Sexual Offences Court, in operation since last year, has increased its conviction rate to 60% and finalised 291 cases in recent months.
This success is partly because survivors are empowered from the moment they report the crime to the trauma centre, which is part of the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme.
Open 24 hours a day, this one-stop centre provides all the necessary services to minimise the suffering of the survivor when reporting the rape. Survivors can make a statement to the police, receive counselling and be medically examined and treated in the centre. The doctor administers the rape kit and with the rape survivor’s consent will provide anti-retroviral treatment.
”We are a success story because we came from the community and are clearly part of the community,” says Fiona Nicholson, CEO of the programme, which was launched in 1997.
Representatives from civil society, church leaders, traditional healers, the law clinic and volunteers formed an NGO to address the shocking rate of rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence in the area.
Backed by the Danish and United States governments, the programme has managed to provide essential services to rape survivors. First is the ”Break the Silence Campaign” in which media and awareness programmes empower people to come forward to report gender violence. The programme also assists peer-group educators to target community leaders, schools and churches to educate them about their human rights and what to do if those rights are abused.
But the most successful part of the programme for victims like Nefolovhodwe’s daughter is the establishment of a group of volunteers called case monitors. These people are trained to support and monitor the survivor from the time she leaves the centre until the end of the trial.
”We allocate a case monitor to each rape victim so that person will be the link between the investigating officer, the victim, the prosecutor and the court,” says Makonele Mphaphuli, case monitor manager.
He says the case monitor informs the victim of each step in the investigation and provides emotional support. Most monitors are law students who gain practical experience of how the courts operate. But others are unemployed and give of their time to ensure that the rape survivor is not abandoned or abused by the system.
Surprisingly, most of the case monitors are men.
Nicholson says that this may be because in their culture most women are taught to be submissive.
”It is a concern, but we accommodate the rape victim as soon as she asks for a female volunteer.” She says a positive spin-off is that these men are becoming more sensitive to gender issues and could be more effective in spreading the message to other men.
Rudzani Mathelemuse, a case monitor who is unemployed, says he volunteered because he witnessed the increase of violence against children and women. He says being a man and a case monitor is challenging.
”We always feel like all men are a disgrace to the community. Our community has to change the way they bring up their children, especially the boys. We need to teach boys to respect girls and treat them equally.”
He says that most of the victims are aware that case monitors are there to help them so they realise that not all men will hurt them. ”But it takes time.”
The prosecutor in Nefolov-handwe’s case was happy at the outcome, particularly in view of the fact that the child could not testify. He says cases that go through the trauma centre are easier to prosecute because all the evidence is collected.
”Prosecutors do not have time to orientate children through the court process and these [case] monitors assist us to prepare the client for the trial.
”You must prove your case beyond reasonable doubt and it is very difficult with those cases that have not gone through the centre because evidence is lost or has not been compiled correctly.”
Magistrate Willy Fourie says before his arrival in Sibasa in August there had been no convictions and a backlog of 420 cases dating back to 1996.
”At the end of November we were down to 196 cases and we have a fairly high rate of success.” The maximum sentence Fourie can give is 15 years, or he refers the case to the high court. He says almost 80% of the victims are under the age of 20. A problem is the lack of female intermediaries from the Department of Social Welfare to assist in court.
”When the intermediary is on leave, I have to postpone cases.”
Fourie was horrified at Nefolov-hodwe’s daughter’s rape.
”The child had third-degree lacerations. A minimum lifetime sentence is prescribed for such a crime and I referred him to the high court for judgement.”
Recently tension arose between the police and the Victim Empowerment Programme after the NGO exposed a policeman’s incompetence with regard to a child rape case. However, they have managed to work amicably on cases as long as case monitors do not interfere in the investigations but monitor the progress.
The Thohoyandou child protection unit is understaffed, with only 10 police officers who have about 80 cases to investigate. But Captain Mzamani Thomas Hobyane believes the incidence of rape and sexual abuse has decreased because the rate of conviction is acting as a deterrent.
”People have seen the convictions and the punishment that is given,” says Hobyane.
The programme is an essential component in linking the police, the courts, the health system and the community for the benefit of the rape survivor.
”We are the glue that keeps everything together,” says Nicholson.
* Not her real name